The God of Flash
by ToBetasered
Summary: He died a hero, at the end of his life he became a legend. His promise kept, Naruto vanishes into the world beyond death. His bane is now his ally. A bleach crossover.
1. Chapter 1

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His life has come to an end yet he continues on surpassing death itself.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto wish I did though.. The story is just for fun not profit.**

**"**speaking**"**

**"**_Thinking"_

_"_**kyuubi to Naruto**_"_

* * *

**The Maelstrom**

* * *

A terrible silence filled the world, within it was cradled the famished echo of a desolate wasteland.

It was the battlefield of ages.

A man's body lay still at the epicenter of a massive crater. His blond hair stirred in the wind, which carried the wavering voices of his allies. He was dying and; unfortunately, the last person that he wanted to see was in the end, the first one to make it to where his body lay. Ignoring the worried calls of his comrades a dark-haired youth skidded to his knees and gently lifted the head of the person who was at once his closest friend and most bitter adversary.

"Why?" His friend asked.

"I never go back on a promise." Blood bubbled at the edges of the fallen figure's mouth.

The kneeling man's dark eyes turned away, unwilling to look, "You…Idiot." He grated out.

Busted, bloody lips sketched a smile- it looked painful, though even on the verge of death, it seemed that the blonde youth could not resist a final parting shot if only to make the other _understand_, "I kept my promise."

The light dimmed in once clear blue eyes.

"Hn."

_Silence…_

* * *

In a large darkened room a pale blue light appeared. It hung in mid-air, glowing softly above a sarcophagus. The orb of light began to pulse. Strange shadows crept across the contours of the empty chamber. For a fleeting moment the light changed to an ominous burnt orange color illuminating what appears to be a tomb, casting eerie shadows.

With a sound akin to gushing water, blue light poured out of the orb and seeped into the tomb. The sound and light grew in intensity before finally they culminated in a blinding flash of light and a thunder-crack of displaced air. Abruptly the room returned to oppressive darkness as the mysterious orb vanished without a trace.

Muffled voices could be heard beyond the walls of the tomb as the sound of rustling cloth came from atop the sarcophagus within.

There came the sound of grating stone, echoing louder than the voices. The doorway of the chamber shifted and a thin sliver of light fell upon a figure that lay sleeping upon the lid of the stone coffin. Dressed in a thin white yukata, a young boy of seven or eight years rested peacefully; he was completely oblivious to the havoc he that he would soon be the cause of.

The grating sound continued and the entrance finally opened, creating a rectangle of light as seen from the inside of the tomb. Several forms poured through the portal prepared to attack or defend. Their tense stances soon changed to one of startled surprise at the sight before them. Before these first few individuals had time to recover their composure, a woman dressed in a kimono of expensive and ornate design entered accompanied by guards.

Emblazoned on the back of the woman's clothes was a hexagon that enclosed crossed rectangles and a rhombus. The geometric design was decorated with stylized stars and a new moon. The evidently important woman allowed her finely crafted eyebrows to arch as her grey eyes took in the scene, the figure as it lay and her agitated clansmen.

"Interesting…" She murmured.

* * *

**"Intriguing…" **The fox muttered.

_Having never been dead before, it was an apt description for its current situation…_

As far as inner worlds went, it was an improvement over a dank sewer…

The wind caressed the tops of several trees in a strangely silent forest. Leaves shook free from their branches and danced in the air with thousands of their brethren. The moonlight casts shadows from the cloud of leaves upon a shrine to the god Inari.

A winding stairway of grey stone interspersed with red Torii gates stretched up the valley wall to the shrine sitting near the top the ridge. Leering stone kitsune sat upon stone pedestals at the entrance to a large pavilion. Animalistic snarls emanated from the darkened entrance of the shrine itself. Loud barks subsided into a deep bass rumbling growl.

Soft padding noises preceded the appearance of red-furred paws that were slightly deformed, appearing to almost be hands. A canine shadow stepped out of the shadows and into the light. Its fur rustled in the wind which rose to a roar. Bamboo groves clattered together in a cacophony that their leaves seemed to want to hush with a truculent hiss. The canine figure paused as its tails swished about in apparent agitation.

**"Death…"** The voice spoke with a contemptuous snort.

**"Be grateful boy…to me."**

**"And to the one…who sealed me within you."**

**"The Yondaime Hokage!"**

A kitsune cried out to the midsummer night sky. The canine body reaed unto its hind limbs as claws turned into long and slender fingers. Tipped with well manicured nails, henna painted hands drummed softly across a taut, tanned stomach as rust red fur receded, revealing something more human in appearance.

Painted toes flexed upon paved stones as serpentine shadows wind across sinuous legs decorated with mehndi body-art.

Black and white tipped tails embraced naked flesh before transforming into a furisode. Long sleeves brushed against the ground as the silken robe patterned with the image of fireflies circling a bonfire at night, shifted and rustled.

A long, furry red tail reached out from between the kimono's folds. It partially transformed two thirds its length into a red sash that pulled the robe closed. The remaining third of the tail rested against the woman's outer lapel, curling over the shoulder and around the back of her neck like a feather boa, serving to accentuate an already impressive bust.

A necklace of prayer beads glinted in the light as a single leaf settled into the palm of an outstretched hand.

* * *

The guards had moved the child to an empty room within the complex while the clansmen debated his fate. The majority of the clan had favored simply throwing the urchin out. However; the timing and location of his appearance, as well as the momentary surge in reiatsu, _nearly the level of a captain_, precluded that option.

"Vandalism!" Some had scoffed as they called for him to be cast out, yet the boy's power could not be dismissed. Nor was it missed that he had appeared at exactly the end of a ceremony intended to ask their first ancestors for guidance, hell, he had even appeared within the tomb of their family's first founding father.

It was against the traditions of the clan to take in urchins without close scrutiny but some argued that perhaps this event was a sign from the Spirit King, a new heir; the clan's current heir was female after all.

The grey eyed, regal woman looked to the current clan head as the discussion shifted. He subtly shook his head. There would be no change in heir. The girl would need a powerful consort however; the anomalous child will stay until his potential, as an asset, could be evaluated.

In the end, the discussion was concluded with some smug and others disgruntled. The members were soon debating the particulars of the child's life within the clan. What are they going to call the boy? New commonly souls lost their memories during the transfer to Soul Society after all…

The amber eyed clan head looked on in amusement. These people were not always solemn but the topic of this child had wreaked havoc on their decorum, a chaotic maelstrom. Lips thinned into a wry smile.

Buddha in heaven laughs.

"Naruto…Until we know otherwise his name is Naruto."

In the corner behind a screen a young woman twitched in incredulity.

"_You named him after a ramen topping?"_

A purple demon mask crowned with horns and a mane of dense white hair adorned the wall opposite. A stone sword was clenched tightly in its teeth and a white robe was mounted on a frame below. A young boy was pretending to sleep peacefully on a large square futon. It was placed in the center of the room. As he breathed in, deeply sleeping, the front of his yukata opened to reveal a pale green crystal pendant hanging on his neck.

It pulsed once, twice, then three times before settling down. The child stirred sleepily…

* * *

**Naruto's inner world…**

She allowed her powers to recede within her. Escape was for the moment impossible. This cage was much finer, much larger than the last. Her pride only allowed a slight frown to show her frustration. This world was larger than her old seal and the bars could not be seen; yet she knew they were there, they had to be there.

A cage was still a cage…

No matter how much power she expended she could not find the limits of this dimension. She had traveled through the endless forest for miles and yet the shrine always appeared to be close by when she looked for it, much closer than it should have been at times. She had briefly turned her ire on the landscape and an ominous power, even greater than her own, had filled the world. Emanating from a dreadful object in the heart of the shrine, it seemed to pick her up and squeeze her to the point of breaking. Since then the Fox had resolved to forgo violence and investigate that power later.

There just had to be a catch though, this place was not what it seemed.

Suddenly, the _sky__** rippled!**_

* * *

_**He dreamed of the past... perhaps...**_

They did battle in twilight. Experience, talent, genius and determination, all these factors bore upon their epic struggle. Their battle was not purely of strength as each had attained legendary might. Their conflict was not one of speed as their time/space ninjutsu was at a level that defied belief.

Doujutsu such as the Sharingan and Byakugan were rendered ineffective by techniques that required their users to subtly grasp and manipulate the space around them. Their comrade's battles played out in red shift as an agonizingly slow ballet. A fist was intercepted, redirected and very nearly lost as blows and counter-blows were exchanged. Lightning, summoned down from the heavens was redirected through walls or stone and into unstoppable, giant swirling blades of wind. Sealing script scrawled across barriers of _existence_. A terrible black flame searched out its victims, consuming dragons of earth, water and even burning elementals of fire.

They fought in a world of silence. Their voices echoing like the thunder of the gods. To their allies it seemed like heaven had opened up a can of whoop-ass. The earth surged and cracked into massive fissures, the clouds frothed in the sky, a giant tornado of fire, lightening, wind, superheated water and molten earth reached up into the stratosphere. Even his mighty teammate was daunted, struggling to heal a lavender-eyed woman amid a field strewn with bodies covered in black cloaks with embroidered red clouds.

Konan lay fatally wounded as Tsunade, Tenzo and Kakashi witnessed the death of a god. The dark man held his hands in the dragon seal focusing awesome amounts of chakra to reinforce a terrifying jutsu.

All focused on Naruto…

"I command all things within this world."

At these dreaded words his world erupted in agony. A black blur crashed into the figured that stood before him, only to hurtle backward leaving a trail of blood that froze into place as the wounded ninja lost his foothold in the twilight realm.

"In this world I control both space and time."

Blue eyes widened in panic before narrowing and turning red. Black lines traversed the space between them and traced the outline of his body. The lines of sealing script encompassed him, burning into his skin.

"Submit!"

His deranged ally and enemy, brother and would-be murderer had returned to the real world. A dark-haired woman raced toward the body hoping to make in time.

"You will **Submit**!"

A soundless voice snarled within him, screaming a frightful challenge and uttering terrible promises. His body filled to bursting with furious power. Invisible fingers dug deeply into his being violating his inner self, seeking out the entity within him.

"Your will is inconsequential you poor detestable brat!"

"This world and all within it shall bow to my will; a world of chaos and bloodshed!"

A sharingan shrouded in shadow begins to spin.

"Vanish from before me, **vanish from this world!**"

Darkness tinged the edges of his vision, his mind and body fractured under the pressures within and without. His heart fluttered wildly as old wounds began to open. Blood poured from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth. Crimson fluid even began to bead his skin. Bones were shattered into fragments then crushed to powder. One seal burned while another began to unfurl.

* * *

His world was engulfed in light. He was timeless, without past or present, uncaring of the future. Yet; for all his existence in this realm there was something that niggled at the back of his mind. A faint echoing scream that would not leave him be. That demanded that he never give up.

_"Me, who am I?"_

A blond man appeared wearing Anbu style armor covered by an open orange jacket.

_"I am him… Is that me?"_

He floated below the surface a vast and endless sea. The wind moved the surface of the water forming rippling waves that slowly formed a collage of scenes from his life.

He tasted the bitter tears of frustration.

_"I…tried sooo hard!"_ Malicious laughter boomed from multiple taunting sources, laughing at his failure, as she demeaned the worth of his struggle against fate.

_"I failed so often!"_ A scratched leaf forehead protector is held in hand, water and blood stained the cloth but fall from the forever scarred metal.

_"Acknowledge my existence!" _Cold eye turned away, taking with them a generation of children taught to hate without reason, to detest without understanding, to deny the right of another to live and love and find freedom and happiness.

_"I am alone…Am I dead?"_

Silence, echoing… silence.

The image was of a memory not his own, painted in a palette of pastel colors, greens and browns, a shock of grey-white hair as seen from a pont of view partially obscured by a lock of golden colored hair.

"_Heh, it was just something that I thought of while eating a bowl of ramen." The white-haired man blushed at the praise, abashed and awed by the love shown to him by the one person he regarded as his son._

"_We would be honored to use that name." _A woman illuminated by the soft inner beauty that could only come from saints, sages and those who create new life, rests gentle hands upon her husband's shoulder. Her red hair flowed over her shoulders, he very badly wanted to touch it.

"_I guess this makes me the godfather!"_

_Silence..._

"_My son…l…" _Gasping, blood pours from his mouth, Sarutobi tried to help him stand but the blond man waves his predecessor away,_ "You were entrusted because you were trusted, I the Hokage place their lives in your hands, Naruto!"_

_Silence..._

"_What do you mean?"_

_"Orochimaru, after all these years you still don't get it!"_ The two stood upside down on the belly of a snake, watching the kyuubi jinchuuriki's struggle to survive against Kabuto.

_"The __**True**__ worth of a ninja is to have the __**guts**__ to never give up!"_ In his final moments, Gallant Jiraiya summoned the strength to restart his heart by the power of will alone, clawing from the void of death to fufil his role in prophecy, to make** his choice**.

_Silence..._

He had not become Hokage. He had not yet succeeded in changing the Hyuuga. There were still those who hated him with an irrational passion. As a ninja He had equaled or surpassed his idol in every area save one. There was still something missing from that jutsu. But true to form in the balance between life and death he found what had eluded him.

The violation of his mind provided the answer. He reached within himself for the ruined remnants of the seal. The counter seal provided by the toads allowed him the alter it. The First Hokage's necklace provided the focus. His blood provided the energy to drive, not the attack itself but the summoning. Using space/time ninjutsu to forge the links he needed to make the attack impossible to avoid, sealing script began to spiral out from where he stood. The seals that were killing him would create a path to strike the enemies within and without.

A deep voice uttering what sounded like a Buddhist sutra caught all their attention, but it was already too late by then. An icy coldness filled him where the incarnation of death touched his shoulder. The man before him visibly wilted and died, his unnatural lifespan too fragile to survive beyond this stage. The Demon turned triumphant eyes upon him. The Shinigami took a measured gaze and pierced both his heart and the demon fox with his blade.

The world erupted in light.

A sonic boom passed over the secret ninja nations. A titanic wave of wind forced those nearby to put up barriers or be slapped with crushing force. In a far away nation a certain bridge stood strong under the force of a sudden monster wave.

One ninja fell within a mile wide crater. His death would eventually be forgotten in history, but the works of his life would change the ninja world; bringing about its salvation. Lightning flashed and his body vanished into legend.

* * *

**AN: It's a first try and unbeta-ed, I'd write something witty but just typing 2000 words takes a lot out of me. The story is just beginning I'll just put this out and see what happens. I checked and double checked every thing. Yet when I was about to post the story I still got creamed with errors. This should be okay. I have a newfound respect for authors that write into six or seven thousand words. A measly two thousand feels in accurate but I have also noticed a tendency among such authors for long rants within the story itself, cathartic but in this persons humble opinion, a bad habit. Is it just me or is the text editor getting suckier every day? TTFN. **


	2. Chapter 2

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His life has come to an end yet he continues on surpassing death itself. Taken in by a noble clan what destiny lies before him?

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto wish I did though.. The story is just for fun not profit.**

**"**speaking**"**

**"**_Thinking"_

_"_**kyuubi to Naruto**_"_

* * *

**Ripple**

* * *

Situational awareness is a must have in battle, especially against opponents that can command the lesser spirits in the air to form a platform that they can stand on. Opponents that can rip holes in the fabric of space and time, to attack from any angle would make any combat an impossible exercise to survive without the proper mindset.

It was not simply a question of being aware of where the enemy was, though that was a large part of the solution. One had to be able to banish the notion of up and down. The sky is for the birds and men walk upon the earth is a mortal concept, not worthy of a lesser god. Spirits walked upon the ground as a matter of choice, of order. In battle such logical concepts needed to go out the window. Furthermore, a spy and assassin needed to be aware at all times and think in multiple dimensions instead of directions.

Such was the purpose of the Fractured Room. Designed by the twelfth division at the request of the second division and her clan, it was a immense space filled with odd formations of sandy rock, trees and lakes on all six walls. Step on the stone or tree and ones sense of up and down would instantly change.

The foliage and water provided cover and obstacles for the purpose of evading attacks and learning to move over terrain with stealth. All in all the design of this room would in the future spark a passion for hidden underground chambers in a certain sandy-haired youth, but that was a story for another time.

A figure blurred through a forest of giant trees before leaping into the sky. Her body was dressed in a black training gi tied off at the forearms and below the knees. Her body continued its ascent before reaching the apex of the jump, midway between ceiling and floor. The sky and earth reversed positions and she began to fall toward a rocky desert that was once the ceiling.

Gracefully twisting in the air her feet touch down gently upon a rock outcrop, then she starts to race away. She ran horizontally along the side of the canyon wall swiftly pursued by another figure. Short dark violet hair rustled as the pursuer flashed in front of the running woman already in the midst of a spinning kick. Bare feet slammed into an angular jaw, breaking it and causing the woman to fall limp and boneless from the wall. Only the body began to fade and disappear halfway down the ravine.

A sleek foot wearing a zori cleaved the purple-haired girl's head in half, passing through a body that disappeared as if it were smoke, fading quickly as it swirled about her limb. Grey eyes widened in surprise.

"This girl…uh!"

Lightning flashed as an orange orb slammed into where she had been standing. Grey eyes twitched at the gleeful expression on her charge's face. The entire mountain of rock collapsed into rubble

"Ara…I almost got you there Haruka-sensei"

"Don't ara me Yoruichi…that was overkill!"

"Yes sensei."

"You're cleaning that up."

"Hahh!"

Masked lips smirked, "Now let's go over the basics for our guest"

"What? Why? He hasn't done anything but stare dumbly at us for the last hour."

"I think Naruto-kun will be interested to learn this." Grey eyes narrow,"I could always have you teach him on your own; now shape up!"

"Yes, Sensei!"

Blue eyes sharpen and look on in silence. The two women stand before him and talk out loud for his benefit. Haruka motions for Yoruichi to start and begins to speak.

"Those of us with sufficient spiritual power may affect the world around us through our own will...Think of it in terms of wading in a pond. The ripples our bodies create are like the emanations of spiritual power, depending on our action leaves and debris may be either attracted to us or repulsed by our sphere of influence."

She paused glancing at the boy to ensure he was listening, he was.

"By manipulating our spiritual power, called reiatsu and by being aware of how it affects our world; we can use the powers of shinigami and more importantly, we can be aware of the usage of power by others."

Focusing on Yoruichi she instructed.

"Empty all extraneous thoughts from your mind and center yourself. Focus on the image of a circle and begin to fill it in. Imagine the power flowing into the circle and stopping within the edges. Then step into the circle and allow the power to encompass you. At this point reiatsu can be used for various means such as Hoho, a shinigami uses their power to connect to the space they want to be and step through to there. Its like…"

Whatever she was going to say died on her lips. Predictably Yoruichi had tried to startle the boy by using shunpo to appear behind him. What had both women gaping was the fact that the boy had disappeared and re-appeared a the place that Yoruichi had been standing before. Haruka hadn't even finished explaining the move yet.

Startled amber eye become calculating as the girl began to grin mischievously. To Haruka's surprise and dismay, blue eyes narrow as the boy returns the look. Her perfect forehead develops a slight wrinkle, a sign of things to come.

"Oh no, two of them."

* * *

**Earlier**

The sky rippled. The heavens shifted like the disturbed surface of a lake. Acting on instinct she sends a tremendous burst of red and orange fire ant the disturbance. Nothing happens, the fire passes completely through the rippling space and continues on, lighting up the night sky. Another figure, wreathed in light looked down upon her from the center of the distortion. It spoke in a gentle voice.

"You should have died."

"I am dead!"

"Your soul almost passed through the Valley of Screams intact."

"You mean hell? What do you mean almost?"

The faceless being answered, "You would know it as thus, the place where all souls begin anew, and I mean what I say, almost."

She felt the truth of the other's words.

"Who are you? Where am I? What do you want?"

The figure teleports to the entrance of the shrine and cryptically answers, "I am the wind and the wave, As the great Mandala turns I encompass all things in nature with the never ending spiral."

Her tail sash swishes in annoyance, "A god, huh, where is this?"

"Not a god, this inner world has taken on the appearance of the thing best associated with safety in both your mind and his."

"So you're just a punk and this is a really nice cage?"

Crimson lips smile. "You are free to think as you wish, but this world is not a cage and I should point out that there is one final answer that I owe you."

The glow fades and crimson eyes meet crimson eyes, "How…Who…What do you want!"

The rippling space above them reveals the image of a sleeping child, "You will serve and support the king of this world until the end of time."

Loud condescending laughter erupts from the woman, dancing on the air like the barking calls of her true form. Crimson eyes look on impassively even as the full force of the other's hostile intent focuses upon her, "Heh, heh, heh, who the hell do you think you are talking to, another power toying with **ME**!"

"You have no choice, it is already done, all that remains is for you to acknowledge that fact."

"And if I do not?"

"Your powers will wither and fade until the king of this world dies naturally or is placed in a dangerous situation where your might is no longer sufficient to aid him, even if you decided to do so. You will then fade from this existence ignominiously."

That, was cold, this one had her pegged, but her pride still stung from more than a hundred years of enslavement to one power or another.

"Still a slave, I will not forgive you!"

Crimson eyes narrow in disdain, "What are you babbling about? This is a service not slavery. You are his partner and it is not as if you were not being recompensed for this position. You should have noticed the improvement in the quantity and quality of our power."

Her finger points to their tail, their **tenth** tail.

* * *

**In the Shihoin Clan Home**

He opened his eyes blearily. Cold blue eyes watched the wooden ceiling before focusing upon the mask set on the wall opposite. A shadow of a shadow of something flitted through the back of his mend, but he couldn't grasp the thought. Lethargically, he sat up and lazily looked around with his eyes half-lidded.

Shoulders flexed and he yawned as he raised his hands above his head. After stretching a bit more he settled back down and curled up to sleep. Mumbling softly he pulled up the covers and thought, _"Where the heck am I?"_

He hated the train of thought that this question raised as it niggled at his mind. The feeling that he was being watched did not help at all with his burgeoning paranoia. The futon was reeealy comfy though. He would just lay there and hope the annoying thoughts would go away. He definitely would not think about what to do if the people watching him from behind the false wall turned out to be hostile and decided to attack.

"_Why would they attack?"_

Never mind how he knew about the false wall or why the complete lack of bladed weapons was driving him insane, or the fact that just laying there felt sooo wrong and…

He sighed and sat up, careful not to look deliberately at the mask. Let's see the last thing he remembered… was being bigger?

No, he really didn't remember being bigger but somehow he felt that he should be?

"_Sai would probably make a crack about my body finally being proportional to my penis."_

He twitched in annoyance before taking a peek below the covers and twitched again.

"_Who the heck was Sai?"_

The men behind the wall definitely seemed amused by the young boy's bemused antics as he ducked below the covers again. The one currently looking through the mask knew that the child had spotted him but was most intrigued but the child subsequent actions.

"_Each motion allows him to take in his surroundings without appearing to do so. He looked for the exit before pretending to wake up!"_

Such ability indicated that the child was either of talented stock or damaged. Only further observation would allow him to tell the difference. He turned away from the wall and focused upon the attendant behind him.

"Aihara I want you to see that he is ready for his examinations. The officers should arrive in a moment."

Without a look back the elderly man left the room. The attendant slowly followed after but went in the opposite direction after leaving the hidden room. The man walked around the corner and slowly walked down a corridor before stopping in front of a sliding door. When he opened the door he wasn't surprised to find that the child was already standing facing him.

"Good morning to you, young master. I am called Wei Aihara, a servant of the noble Shihoin Clan. If I may ask, what is your name?"

The boy moves to answer but his face twists in confusion that turns to frustration tinged with fear. The attendant looks on patiently before acting to relieve the boy's anxiety.

"It is possible that your experiences may have caused you to lose your memory. Please bear with us, you are among friends. I have been instructed to guide you to a healer and accompany you on this fine day."

This was obviously one of the spies but lacking options the boy nodded and went along with the man.

He deeply regretted going along with the man. Oh it had started out innocently enough with a nice young female healer who informed him with a giggle that yes, he was dead, and yes he was otherwise completely healthy. Then had come a woman from the twelfth who poked and prodded him attached what looked like tentacled leeches to his head and 'tsked' gently when she asked him to turn his head and cough. He was sure that she was messing with him when she pulled out a large syringe with a foot long needle and told him to turn around and bend over.

Racing away, followed by a harried attendant and cackling laughter he turned down a corridor that he vaguely remembered being told lead to the baths. Eager to wash the filth of that woman off of him he quickly stripped off his yukata, grabbed a towel and jumped into the steaming pool; not noticing the frantically gesticulating attendant.

"Haruka-sensei is that you?"

Startled by the sleepy voice he stumbles and land in something nice and squishy. Pushing the object out of the way blue eyes met amber as an attendant began to pray.

And that was how Naruto met **Yoruichi.**

* * *

**AN: I took care this time to meticulously proofread the entire story. I'm shooting for a two thousand word minimum and have a definite Idea of where I want to take this story. The second chapter was already written when I posted the first so please don't expect the speed of this posting to be the norm, I want to do this properly after all and I have a life too. I tried to do some research for aspects of the story. not so sure what I'll do for the demon art chants though. I also don't intend to have any of the characters get intimately involved at this point in the story, Naruto appearance is that of a seven year old after all. I got some feedback that the first chapter was a little confusing. I tried to structure it so that the flow would subtly guide the reader without a he says she says. It also reflected Naruto's mental confusion and, well, the fact that my writing kind of sucked. See Ya**

**Attempt no. 1 Edited story in ffnet preview, title of story moved to bottom of page.**

**Attempt no. 2 Edited story, on selecting Bold half of story deleted.**

**Attempt no. 3 Used Ctrl Z to restore story, all of restored story in bold, deleted portion also in Italics, attemps to edit this results in entire story under Disclaimer being deleted.**


	3. Chapter 3

**His life has come to an end yet he continues on surpassing death itself. Taken in by a noble clan what destiny lies before him? Unkowing of his fate he continues on to a destined meeting.**

"speaking"

_"thinking"_

**"Kyuubi to Naruto"**

**Yoruichi**

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"Now by using non-linear differentiation to solve for the coordinates, we can create a vector that penetrates the imaginary space….Hey! You listening?!"

The blond ninja was startled awake, a snot bubble popping. To be fair he had struggled through the work on his own before asking Gamasaru to explain it to him. He had then soldiered on through the first two times the frog had explained the jutsu to him before delegating a hidden shadow clone to listen in so that later he could get someone, probably Hinata, Sakura was too often busy, to explain it to him in nice and simple words.

Naruto had made one miscalculation though. While amphibian body language was different from that of humans, the subtle vibrations of moist flesh, the twitching of liquid eyes and fleshy brows, and the way that the normally sagacious toad slapped his webbed hand over his face all added up to trouble for Naruto.

During their travels Jiraiya had given Naruto a fairly solid grounding in the use of seals. It had been surprisingly subtle, a storage seal here an enhancement seal there, a few anecdotes about things that the elder ninja had done, mostly in relation to how to stop the curse seal and little by little Naruto's education blossomed under Jiraiya's somewhat erratic tutelage.

Years later the blond ninja had furthered his knowledge with the aid of Jiraiya's effects and the supervision of the elder toads. His lack of basic academy knowledge had hurt him in this endeavor but with the aid of Sakura and a bashful Hinata, he powered through the theory by sheer force of will and the practical aspects had followed with wondrous ease. They had only had to re-attach his arms once…After they found them that is.

On the subject of the infinitely more dangerous space/time ninjustu, Naruto was forced to go slowly, the thin banded scars on his upper arms a constant reminder of just how badly things could go wrong. He had learned the hard way that while the Kyuubi would always heal him eventually; there some wounds that he would much rather not have to heal from.

Botching space/time ninjutsu could leave him skinned alive, or materializing inside of solid rock, or simply crushed into an unrecognizable ball of blood and meat. He had already had the Kyuubi strip the skin from his body when he lost control of the demon fox's chakra. He didn't relish learning if he could heal from being crushed into an unrecognizable ball of blood and meat.

So he had taken his time and read up on those of the Fourth Hokage's notes that were in Jiraiya's possession. The difficult work had already been done. Anyone possessing his father's blood should be able to use the enhanced body-flicker. But Naruto didn't just want to replicate the technique, he wanted to improve it. The technique had originated from simple observations and conversations with summoned toads. Summoning techniques were an example of time/space ninjutsu after all.

The Summoner signed a contract seal that created a link to his or her summon's realm. The blood sacrifice and chakra empowered the seal that acted as a beacon to allow the summoned being to find the correct plane of existence to appear on. The beauty of the Yondaime's technique was that the jutsu shiki engraved on his kunai and the seal tags that could be placed in fixed locations didn't emit any chakra when used or otherwise inactive. The user channeled their chakra into a modified shunshin to momentarily underjump through space. The pressure that would normally result in high speed movement is instead used to fold space between the location of the user and the location of the tag. In layman's terms, instead of taking the stairs down form the top of one building, crossing the street and taking an elevator up to the top of another, Minato turned the space between the two building into a metaphorical trampoline that he could jump onto and would propel him in the direction of the activated seal.

Basically the Yondaime's technique was a simple way to summon oneself without giving away one's position to the enemy. The most difficult part was learning the right seal equation to allow him to do what he wanted without killing himself. The method that Naruto wanted to use was similar but forgoes the use of a seal tags or marked kunai. It was more akin to sucking oneself through a straw. An impossible sounding feat but he had an idea.

The toads only needed the Summoner to **call** them using the chakra beacon. Returning to their own realm was like sliding down a smooth slope, where they appeared in their own realm was a matter of well honed instinct. What he needed was a way to simultaneously link him to both the real world and the under-space used by Minato's jutsu. Using chakra he could indefinitely balance himself between the two and perhaps even move through space using this technique.

He still hadn't decided on an appropriate Rosetta stone to use and he needed input from the toads to learn how they felt their way back to the summon realm. As a result he was here for another boring lecture from the gasbag Gamasaru.

"It's good to know that this gasbag is appreciated."

"_Oh crap, did I say that out loud?!"_

In the six and a half years since he'd met his first summoned toad Naruto felt like he had gained a sense of understanding of the clan. Some were placid and easy-going like Gamatatsu and only mildly rebuked him for his more outrageous slights and mistakes, settling for a simple look of patience. Others were brash and contentious like Gamabunta and Gamakichi who could be counted to call him out at the slightest sign of idiocy. Most, however; were like Gamasaru, reasonably patient, no-nonsense types that could quickly become irate if they thought he was taking them for granted. Dangerously irate, like the way Gamasaru was becoming now.

The whiskered ninja sweated and his face scrunched suspiciously as the toad began to chuckle darkly.

"Fu, fu, fu, fu….Huuu, of course it would be like this, I should have expected as much from someone like you."

"Hey! I resent that!"

"Dumb-asses like you learn best from experience, Jiraiya had to throw you off a cliff after all."

"_I don't like where this is going!"_

"Naruto! Venture into the realm beyond and learn with your own body!"

"Now just wait a minute!"

"The fox within you might even be of aid. Don't hate me if you die!!" A swirling vortex appears about them both.

"Oi!...Gyaaaaahhhh!"

His body tumbled, blind, deaf and numb. He twirled through space without direction, without any sense of up or down. It felt like he was being smothered by a pillow, nausea began to rise within him. The world took on a red tinge and he stood before a massive gate closed by a single, frayed piece of paper, it looked like there were tears being held together by clear plastic tape. Learning seals were useful for patching leaks.

He cursed himself and that damned frog for putting him in this situation. A half-formed idea that he got from Tenzo was now being furiously vetted, he just needed chakra. A large canine muzzle came into view as red eyes looked upon him in disdain.

"**You moron, what did you do this time?"**

Within the void a blond man smirks, as a crystal pendant pulses, and his body **begins to** **flicker**.

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The Wei family was a small middle class-clan that provided the Shihoin clan with basic weaponry, rare goods and skilled labor. There were even rare instances that a son or daughter in the executive military corps would marry one of the lower ranking clan members. It hadn't happened in his lifetime but it had happened before. Since he was already married and quite content with his safe, well-paid job, Aihara was not as disgruntled as some of his colleagues had been at some of the rumors about the blond. Though he doubted a no-name urchin would be named consort of the clan heir he held his tongue. That Kuchiki boy seemed like a more likely candidate but he held his own counsel, an essential trait that, beneficial for working as a personal attendant to the Clan Head.

The young man in his charge had followed along gamely enough, not uttering a word, unconsciously emulating the older man's gait and comportment with a grace that unknowingly raised Naruto's stock in Wei's eyes. It had all gone so wrong when Hikifune-taichou decided to have some fun after giving Wei a subtle all-clear.

He had hurried after the boy who had eventually cracked and rushed off with unusual heat. Aihara was surprised to note that the blond had familiarized himself with the layout of the mansion after only given a brief tour. The Shihoin clan house was **designed** to be difficult to navigate after all. The child's haste worked against him though as he failed to notice that he had entered the women's side of the bath or the slippers and clothes that indicated it was occupied. Tired and not wanting to cause a scene Wei gestured to the women's sign with increasing urgency while the blond, whiskered boy ignored him and entered the steam-filled bathing area.

"_Oh well, at least he'll learn not to be so hasty. What's the worst that could happen?" _

His blood ran cold as he recognized the voice beyond the thin panel door.

"_Oh great celestial king of heaven your loyal servant is still too young to die!"_

The was a period of silence, followed by nervous laughter and some words that he could barely make out. His faced paled in shock.

"_Idiot!"_

There was a dull boom originating from the baths, followed be a flood of water gushing into the changing room carrying along a naked and unconscious Naruto. A wash bucket also carried along by the currents came to settle above his privates.

Wei stared in resignation before looking incredulously in the direction of the voice behind him.

"Oh good, looks like they've met each other."

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He had that weird dream again, something to do with foxes and frogs. These first groggy thoughts vanished from his mind as he scrambled out of the way of a foot that would have smashed the wash bucket into splinters. He snatched up a wet towel as he tried not to think of the sleek long leg attached to that foot and going a little bit higher…

"Pervert!"

"_True."_ He silently agreed as he edged behind the other two people in the room trying to look a innocent as possible.

"Idiot!"

"_I guess I deserved that I should have been more careful… Still, it was sooo soft."_

"Noodle-boy!"

"_Now that was just uncalled for! I'm still sensitive about that."_

After briefly checking to see that no one was watching, he tugged at the bottom of an eyelid and made a face at the dark skinned girl. The girl's teacher noticed anyway and acted to relieve the situation and spare the flustered servant.

"Yoruichi-chan, the young man is a guest, stop causing a scene."

"But Haruka-sensei!"

"This was an honest mistake on his part. You should know better than to sleep in the bath!"

"…"

Turning away from the chastened girl Haruka dismissed the attendant after informing him that the boy would be in her care for the day and then instructing him about what to do when Naruto returned home.

"Yes Haruka-sama." With those words Wei bowed once to Haruka and one more time deeply to Yoruichi, before shuffling out of the room. Blue eyes attentively watched the dark-haired, grey-eyed beauty. The woman gently motioned for Yoruichi to begin to dress before leading the boy out of the room.

"Naruto-kun, my name is Shihoin Haruka a member of the Shihoin Clan and a personal instructor in the demon arts.

Blond eyebrows furrow in confusion as the purple-haired girl from before exited the bathroom and glared at him.

"Demon…Arts?"

Shihoin Haruka smiles down upon the child before her.

"Naruto-kun, would you like to see something interesting?"

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**AN: Well I got after this it's going to be a while before I post again. I'll write and do some research in my spare time, but expect it to be at least a month before I get the chance to continue. On the other hand it'll probably be a lot longer than two thousand words. I'd also like to see if there are any recomendations for a Beta Reader. I've only just started walking again. See Ya.**


	4. Chapter 4

**His life has come to an end yet he continues on surpassing death itself. Taken in by a noble clan what destiny lies before him? Unknowing of his fate he continues on to a destined meeting. Naruto fate as a member of the Shihoin Clan hangs in the balance!**

**I don't own Naruto, this is for fun, not profit **

"speaking"

"_thinking"_

"**Kyuubi to Naruto"**

**Flicker**

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Soul Society was a vast realm. No true effort had ever been taken to discover just how large since time and distance in spiritual realms, no matter how stable, were deceptive. The twelfth division estimated the surface area of available land in Soul Society to be roughly one and a half times the size of the mortal Earth, and growing.

This makes sense when one considers that the expansion of Soul society is related to number of spirits housed within. While most denizens of Soul Society eventually reincarnate, through natural or violent means. With a mortal population of billions and a death-span of one hundred years to several thousand years, depending on individual reiatsu levels, heaven would get very crowded if it couldn't let out its belt.

It was the sheer size of Soul Society that ensured that family separated in death would have virtually no chance at all of being reunited on the other side. When crossing-over naturally spirits may appear randomly in the living sectors based on their time of death and blind luck. Spirits released by soul konso or forcible purifications were even more erratic in nature.

This was what assured the status of the four great noble families. Their organization since the beginning of human memory by the Spirit King and their long history of service toward the maintenance of order within creation gave them a place of honor within heaven. The true-blood shinigami were assured to produce members possessing spiritual power of high quality and in the past, the precursor of the executive militia had actually served as Soul Society's main force in battling Hollows and guiding lost souls. Population growth, both mortal and Hollow had put an end to that.

Ironically the spread of humanity across the world and the success of their existence meant a change in the fortunes of the power of the noble families. The founding of the shinigami academy and the formal creation of the Gotei Thirteen had regulated and ensured that although the number of shinigami was vastly increased, the level of their skill was acceptable to the task of defending the mortal world from hollows and being the first line of defense for the Spirit King.

The power of the Noble Families lay in their influence as councilors of the central forty-six and their reputation for producing powerful shinigami. While many envied and resented their power, theirs was a life of privilege bound by iron rules. The members of the different noble lines fought as much in honor of the traditions of their ancestors as for the preservation of order. One could almost say that for the nobles the two principles were one and the same.

Kuchiki Byakuya meditated upon order and the ephemeral nature of life as he watched the sakura trees bloom in his family's courtyard. The pale pink flowers forming tenuous clouds of beauty as the branches sway in the wind. Their destiny, however; was to fall to earth and die, thus making way for new life. As previous generations of his family, he would enter into the service of the Gotei Thirteen and acquit himself as expected of a member of his clan, it could not be otherwise. Looking upon this heavenly view he swore to uphold the poise and honor of the Kuchiki House. The cherry blossoms rustled with renewed vigor as if the will of his deceased mother agreed.

In his mind a soft voice intoned a favored song, Sakura.

_Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms, _

_On Meadow-hills and dale, _

_As far as you can see. _

_Is it a mist, or clouds? _

_Fragrant in the morning sun. _

_Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms, _

_Flowers in full bloom. _

_Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms, _

_Across the Spring sky, _

_As far as you can see. _

_Is it a mist, or clouds? _

_Fragrant in the air. _

_Come now, come, _

_Let's look, at last!_

Suddenly, the wind surged as two figures blurred across the air above the courtyard, seeming to cross the space in a single bound. Their figures were only barely discernable to his skilled eyes for a moment before vanishing from view. The disturbance of their passage caused all of the sakura trees to dump their laden flowers at once in a single breathtaking display leaving behind the barren branches of naked trees.

Dark eyes closed, serene and calmly poised even in the wake of mocking laughter and the amused female voice that wafted back to him.

"Heh, heh, too slow noodle-boy. You too Baby-Kuya, you'll get all feeble and wrinkly if you sit there like an old man!"

Calm and poised, calm and poised, a vein throbbed on the side of his jaw. He'd just made a promise about this sort of thing damn it.

"_Noodle-boy?"_

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Inner World

She stood upon a small pond behind the shrine. The ripples emanating from her feet did not disturb her reflected image in the water. Two scrolls bobbed in the water, their tails were unfurled, stretching around her and up into the sky in a sinuous double helix. Crimson eyes took in the symbols that only held meaning to her. Sensitive hears listened to the whisper of the wind as it muttered the secrets of the dead. One hand traced the information upon the scroll as the other possessively stroked a twitching tail.

Her oldest memories were unreliable. She seemed to recall great earth-shattering roars and gouts of fire and earth forming titanic mushroom clouds. Whenever possible she had directed these dreams to her former host and current master. Delicate-seeming hands tightened before abruptly relaxing.

"_Partner."_

At the time that she had truly become self-aware it seemed that she had always inhabited her demonic form. She had not been as concerned by the truth of her nature as with survival. The realm of her kind had lost its appeal to her and she had been increasingly interested in one of the mortal planes of existence. The various rituals and spiritual worship of the land's inhabitants had drawn up an enormous amount of spiritual energy from deep within the world. Furthermore something about this world's power had largely driven away the hungry spirits with which she had at times found herself having to fight off on occasion. The existence of the furless ones had not been of much concern.

She had lived in the world for several hundred years before human encroachment bothered her. They regarded her as a deity and she mostly just ignored them. Their presence was always at the edges of her senses however and she had kept an eye on them. One unforeseen circumstance of this was an increased interest in herself and her surroundings. Even after those first tribes had vanished into history she found herself observing the practices of these humans. She had answered the flattery of a shaman and had used her powers to heal. She had listened in disdain to the cruel and evil entreaties of a woman desiring vengeance. Good and evil she learned from experience and observation. With the coming of her ninth tail, five hundred years of constant study had seen the **genesis of intellect**.

Shortly after that, they pissed her off. It was a simple trap easy to see and easy to avoid. While aiding a shaman in exchange for being shown something amusing she had been bound. A new invention, seals, used to bend and control the workings of the natural world had been turned on her, **using her own chakra**.

It had been a crude and simple construct by the reckoning of modern ninja but it was robust enough to **force** her to do his bidding, for a while. At the moment that the man had declared himself chieftain of two square miles of mud huts, she had gathered enough power to regain control of her own body.

Her revenge was what had started it all. Until that time, the Bijuu were stunning god-like beings to be respected and avoided at all cost. The Three-tails decided that your house looked like a good urinal, simply move out of the way and let it relieve itself. Anyone sleeping at the time was just out of luck.

She had called down fire and lighting. Her tails had cleaved the earth and sea, burying not just the capital but destroying the entirety of a small nation. One would think that this would further encourage people not to mess with her. Instead, the thought that had stayed with people was the fact that she **could** be controlled, and the fear that something that powerful **should** be controlled.

The time following had been one of endless grief as she put the smack-down on nation after nation of increasingly competent seal-masters. When they failed, she killed them, their family, their friends, their friends' pets, everyone. Unfortunately this only served to ensure that only the best and most well prepared went after her. Her arrogance had not allowed her to admit that she was beginning to feel the heat until the coming of the Sage of Six Paths. Soon after that, she met the Uchiha Clan.

"_Curses."_

"Why am I learning this again?" The fox woman huffed in annoyance.

Her reflection hollowly replied, "The more that the king of this world learns about himself, the more powerful he will become."

Crimson eyebrows rose as she asked again, "Why am **I** learning this?" The reflection below her changed to the image of a monsoon cloud swirling about her feet. An echoing voice replied, "You must learn of your new powers in their entirety in order to best aid our king!"

The air about her shifted as a giant vortex of wind materialized before her carrying the scent of the coming rainstorm. Her body shifted form into that of a daikaijyu with ten silver-tipped tails.

"**Bring it on, bitch!"**

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"What did you call me?!" Yoruichi demanded.

Naruto looked at her blankly and replied, "I didn't say anything."

"I heard you! You called me a …"

"We're here" Haruka calmly intoned.

Naruto turned to see what she was talking about and gasped lightly. Where 'here' was, was a room at the bottom of a staircase below the Shihoin compound. They stood on top of a cliff overlooking a vast plain of giant, sandy, red rock spires. The size alone would have been startling but on each face of the giant cubical room there was a different environment. The wall behind them looked like a wide plain of chest-high grasses and contained a winding river with a sparkling horse-shoe lake.

His face was blank as he took it all in.

"_Incredible."_

Yoruichi looked on proudly, "This is the Fractured Room."

He was secretly impressed but knew that his blank look would annoy her. The purple haired girl seemed to be peeved by his lackluster response but ignored him in favor of her teacher. The woman had walked some way away from them and now stood at the far end of the clearing near the edge of the cliff where the ground dropped off to form the rocky desert. Her grey eyes looked out over the terrain before turning back to them.

"Yoruichi and I will have a little warm-up while you watch Naruto-kun."

Amber eyes crinkled in amusement as she took off her sandals, "A light warm-up?"

Haruka smiled benignly, "Yes, **light**."

Naruto watched the byplay between the two with a clueless expression. Yoruichi and Haruka began stretching and flexing their bodies, twisting first one way then another before hopping briskly in place for a few minutes. Naruto frowned, _"That's it?"_

Suddenly Yoruichi dashed forward releasing a blistering combination of open and closed fisted strikes at Haruka who either avoided them completely or deflected the blows with equal dexterity. Yoruichi seemed to sway backward, her body crouching and coiling up like a spring. In a single fluid movement she leapt at Haruka with a series of spinning kicks. The older woman avoided the first kick before covering the left side of her head, bracing her forearm with her right hand. Taking the blow with her braced arm, her right hand snaked out, catching a hold of the offending leg.

In a display of flexibility Yoruichi struck at her opponent with her other leg, jackknifing her body so that it folded in half. In that time, however; Haruka had completed a quick three-quarter turn to her left and released the purple-haired girl. Yoruichi was tossed off the cliff with enough force to make it almost all the way to the nearest rock formation. Turning her backward momentum into centripetal force, Yoruichi flipped acrobatically until she came into contact the side of the rock wall.

The world seemed to realign itself to match her perspective. Haruka seemed to fall toward her following an inverted ballistic arc. The girl dashed away, narrowly avoiding her mentor who created a crater in the side of the rock face when she crashed into it. Closely pursued, she raced around and up the rock before jumping high into the air.

Naruto's mouth widened fractionally when she stopped jumping up and began falling down, to the ceiling. The battle continued on with the two weaving between trees and throwing several throwing knives at each other. He squinted his eyes as he thought he saw Haruka trap her opponent in an arm lock and slam her bodily into a boulder, only for the girl's broken body to fade into nothingness.

From that point on the two women seemed to flicker about from place to place in a frenzied blur of arms and legs. At times they would hide from each other and toss assorted bladed weapons at midrange, before changing positions and going at it again. Naruto watched in interest as Yoruichi appeared upside-down behind Haruka already twisting in the air a blade came flashing toward the woman's neck. Haruka must have had experience with this move before, for if she had simply spun to face the presence behind her, she would have been decapitated.

Ducking to avoid the blow Haruka tried to sweep the feet that weren't on the ground. Taking in the situation in an instant, she dived out of the way of a powerful over-head kick and raced away with Yoruichi in pursuit.

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"What was your impression of him?"

Amber eyes set in an old and wizened face regarded her seriously. He had been the leader of the clan for close to one thousand years. The Captain of the Executive Militia and Demon Arts Brigade for five hundred years before retiring in favor of a trusted vice captain. Detecting deception was by now an involuntary reflex. A keen mind honed by centuries of hunting traitors and scouting in dangerous territory, dissected her every expression, every nuance of verbal inflection, reading her as easily now as when she was a younger student.

"Tell me, Haruka."

Shihoin Hanshou was a difficult man to deny, and absolutely dangerous to ignore. She steeled herself to give her report clearly and concisely as she had been taught growing up.

"He shows talent, especially in the fields of Hoho and possibly Hakuda as well."

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Earlier.

She honestly tried not to gape she really did, for someone at that age to show such promise in the shinigami arts was rare even within a noble family. From the very beginning she hadn't expected much from the child. It was simply his fortune, or misfortune to appear the way he did. She certainly did not hold that this child was a sign from their ancestors. She had expected to use the boy's presence as an opportunity to get her student to go over the basics. If he showed no promise as a potential shinigami he would be quickly regulated to a position as one of Yoruichi's minor servants and the issue would be forgotten.

Yet it wasn't just his easy grasp of the concept that had her stunned. It hadn't been a coincidence that the boy had moved out of Yoruichi's way.

"_The little bugger tracked her movement?!"_

Yoruichi really had talent for shunpo, she was already beginning to create her own techniques and in less than a decade Haruka was sure she wouldn't be able to keep up with her.

"_You are a real true-blood shinigami Yoruich it will be an honor to serve you."_

Haruka watched as Yoruichi challenged the boy to shunpo again and then flash-stepped ahead of him. The two began to play a lively game of tag, flickering about from place to place faster and faster until she lost sight of them. Hruka sighed at the evidence that Yoruichi had been holding back against her.

"_That girl!"_

Not just the girl, that boy as well. He was a diamond in the rough.

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At the Shihoin mansion,

Haruka finished her report, "I recommend an accelerated training course before enrolling him in the academy when his talents begin to mature, Naruto-kun definitely has talent."

Hanshou nodded, the nurse had indicated that the boy was in excellent physical shape and then he thought of Hikifune.

"Kirio-chan has reported that while the boy's chain link was in good shape his hakusui or soul sleep showed signs of re-composition, indicating a violent death."

Haruka nodded, "The life of a warrior, or at least a life of war."

Hanshou smiled grimly, "Then perhaps it is most fitting that Shihoin Naruto should appear before us."

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**AN: The song Sakura that Byakuya's mother is singing in his memories is a Meiji era folk song. This one is slightly longer than the other chapters that I've written so far. The next few chapters will take some time as I'm going to do some research. **


	5. Chapter 5

**His life has come to an end yet he continues on surpassing death itself. Taken in by a noble clan, what destiny lies before him? Unknowing of his fate he continues on to a destined meeting. Naruto's fate as a member of the Shihoin Clan hangs in the balance! His greatest bane is now his ally?!**

**I do not own or profit from the anime/manga Naruto or Bleach. This story is just for fun.**

"Speaking"

"_Thinking"_

"**Kyuubi to naruto"**

**Genesis**

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"Again!"

Bored blue eyes gazed soulfully out of a lightly tanned, whisker-marked face. A clear blue sky was accentuated by only the faintest wisps of clouds drifting in the air. Yellow breasted birds sang from their perches high in the trees. It was such a beautiful day that all he really wanted to be able to enjoy the natural world. Naruto's now twelve year old frame stood firm atop a windy mountain peak.

Before his instructor made to speak again he swiftly turned his attention back to the task at hand. A tenuous line of hellmoths fluttered about erratically in the wind. Fulfilling their given task, the shinigami messengers attempted to remain within one hundred meters of each other, wavering haphazardly in accordance to the whims of the mountain zephyrs.

"_This is just ridiculous."_

Shunpo was fun, hands down, as a recreational sport when playing games of tag with Yoruichi from time to time, especially when they had crashed the private training sessions of that emotionally stunted Kuchiki brat. Usually Yoruichi would just continue to bait and annoy the dark-haired youth until he cracked and attacked her under the guise of 'training',

That had all ended when Yoruichi had been inducted into the executive militia. After joining the ranks as a new member she was tested and gained the rank of vice-captain, she quickly gained a reputation for her drive and power. Many speculated that with her skill she would soon rise to the top of the organization. With a high turnover rate in the second division for officers due to the dangerous and isolated nature of their tasks as assassins and spies and the fact that the current head was said to be still recovering from a serious chronic injury; many speculated that in the purple-haired Shihoin was headed for the top in less than a hundred years. Yoruichi was a rising star, especially within the Soul Society Female Shinigami Society, along with a young Kuchiki Byakuya who they all thought was adorable. Yoruichi made a killing selling locks of his hair.

Naruto had met Shihoin Hanshou, the mild-mannered, yet subtly intimidating clan leader after that first day with Haruka. Due to declining health, it was said that he had retired to oversee the affairs of the clan and to spend his time training his heir and waiting for her to succeed him within the ranks of the clan and the shinigami military force. Hanshou spent his time interacting with the councilors of the Central Forty-Six and directing the different interests of the Shihoin Clan. It was said that he would only relax after Yoruichi had claimed the captaincy of the second division and removed any lingering doubt that she was a fit successor.

In the last few decades she had been consumed by a burning desire to prove herself as Haruka could no longer protect the one hundred and sixty year old Shihoin princess from the burning rumors and innuendos that abounded about Yoruichi's professional military career. Incensed by the charges of nepotism she had quite literally thrown herself into training with a reckless abandon, seeking to perfect every technique to correct every flaw, real or imagined. Naruto secretly worried for her but Haruka had said that neither she nor Hanshou-sama was worried. Yoruichi's manner had become harsh and abrupt but the bulk of her vitriol seemed to be primarily focused upon a hapless subordinate, a sandy-haired fifth seat officer.

Fortunately, the man seemed to take the abuse in stride, never seeming to lose his sense of humor and good cheer, except when Yoruichi kicked him in the balls for saying something that she considered inappropriate. Naruto winced at the memory and sincerely hoped that the poor man found some sort of proper groin protection soon. The low-blow was starting to become second nature to Yoruichi especially after a scene that he and Haruka had chanced upon while first training in the Fractured Room.

Yoruichi had arbitrarily decided that Urahara Kisuke, as he later learned the man was called, needed to take in some supplemental training to help refine his shikai. Yoruichi was standing in a white training gi tied closed over a black vest and knee high boots that dug into the ground as she simultaneously berated her would be training partner and heaved backward. She was attempting to drag a bag of training tools from the arms of the man who was desperately clutching it to his stomach.

Haruka had greeted them and an annoyed Yoruichi had introduced Naruto to Kisuke who grinned sheepishly at the young boy and began asking avid questions about the training room and the people who had built it.

Haruka had answered Urahara to the best of her abilities pointing out different features to the man who was enraptured by the workings of the room. Taking advantage of the drooling man's distraction Yoruichi had snatched away the bag before her dusky skin flushed. Urahara had been very much taken by the mechanics of the room. So much so in fact that there was a very noticeable bulge under his black hakama. He must have been using a metal plate to save himself from the agony of Yoruichi's 'love taps' because the whole thing had come loose under the pressure and formed a ridiculously long horizontal peak unter the fabric that raised Haruka's eyebrows.

They had barely gotten clear of the blast wave caused by whatever hadou Yoruichi had used on Kisuke. Naruto had wanted to go back and watch the fireworks but Haruka wisely lead him away from the frantic screams and apologies of Urahara Kisuke. It had taken a month to repair the room. From then onward Naruto always felt a sense of commiseration for the hapless shinigami.

Another side effect of Yoruichi's success was that now Haruka had begun to focus on training Naruto in the arts and traditions of the shinigami. The members of the noble houses were the ones best placed to have available shinigami tutors. As a result of this fact there was no real need for Naruto to attend the shinigami academy since the quality of instruction that could be obtained through the connections of the Shihoin clan was superior in many ways to that of the academy.

They had started with the movement skills of Hoho which as Naruto learned was far more than just learning to use shunpo. Of course when they did teach him shunpo they really went all out. Haruka and another personal instructor named Kotengu Jutaro, a grumpy old man that served in the Shihoin personal guard, laid out various target circles about one of the clan's private training grounds. Naruto's task was to shunpo as far as he could go and as many times as he could while doing the training exercise.

The closer that he came to the center of the targets the more difficult Haruka made getting there become for him. At first it was simply a matter of teleport from point A to point B and back again taking care to be as close to the center of the circle as possible. Haruka was a fan of learning the basics and made him repeat the exercise in ever more unreasonable sounding variations. Shunpo forwards, shunpo backwards, shunpo blindfolded, shunpo while dazed, shunpo from one floating log to another, shunpo from the tip of a blade of grass to a leaf on a Sakura tree without disturbing the blossoms, reapeat all of the exercises while dodging throwing daggers. On and on for close to sixty years Haruka worked him, secretly amazed at his skill and determined to take his training as far as she could.

Finally there came the hellmoths, the spiritual tools were used as messengers and as guides into and out of Soul Society. Every official shinigami was issued to use of one and held the authority to summon more. The Shihoin Clan cultivated and provided the hellmoths to the twelfth division to process for their use by all shinigami. It was one of the traditional services that their clan provided to Soul Society.

Naruto's current predicament had resulted from a grunted suggestion from Kotengu-sensei. He still hadn't mastered using shunpo to move from leaf to falling leaf in the training grounds and Kotengu had advocated more strenuous training. He had been watching a hellmoth go fluttering by when he said that and Naruto's stomach sank.

When they had explained what they wanted him to do and more importantly **where** they wanted him to do it, Naruto had felt appalled and a strange sense of déjà vu. He had been told to cross a several hundred foot wide chasm cut into the side of a mountain by a tumbling waterfall. He was to make his way across using only the backs of the hellmoths living in the valley as floating stepping stones. One error and Naruto would plunge nine hundred feet to the forested valley floor.

When he asked them what they would do if he fell Kotengu and Haruka shared a brief glance before clapping their hands twice and bowing to him looking like they were barely restraining their amusement.

Naruto had briefly considered refusing before ruthlessly crushing the thought. The Shihoin clan had not exactly been welcoming to Naruto but the members that he had met seemed to express a mixture of well concealed incredulity and anticipation. Anticipation of what, Naruto couldn't tell but he definitely picked up the sense that his future depended heavily on his performance. Shihoin Hanshou had said as much in their conversation when he had been told of his adoption into the clan. More than the sense of expectation, Naruto truly enjoyed his time training in the clan and the subtle feeling of belonging that pervaded his dealings with the Shihoin Clan members.

Steeling himself without showing much visible emotion to the silent approval of his sensei, Naruto decided to make the attempt as quickly as he could. With a running start, he successfully flash-stepped unto the backs of three hellmoths before he mistimed the wavering fourth and fell screaming into the abyss.

The wind rushed past him was the current of the waterfall blurred, instinctively his body twisted in the air, limbs reaching frantically for a nonexistent foothold to arrest his fall. Just as his body had reached halfway down the waterfall the mist created by the churning water swirled in place and solidified under him creating a platform that abruptly stopped his fall. Haruka and Kotengu appeared on ledges at the sides of the waterfall as Naruto struggled to still his rapidly beating heart.

Kotengu spoke in a strong but wizened voice.

"It seems that you have finally grasped the true meaning of hohojutsu. Gathering the reiatsu that emanates from the soul sleep is just the first step. Using that gathered reiatsu to control the spiritual forces that surround the immediate space about your body is the true thrust of hoho."

Haruka picked up from where Jutaro had left off. "By commanding the reiatsu of your surroundings you will be able to enhance your movements and create effects such as the platform you are standing upon and the ability to soar through the air for short distances."

Using shunpo to return to the top of the ridge she called down, "All that remains is for you to refine your movements."

After several years of practicing variations of these new training techniques Naruto had grown to refine his spiritual control to prodigious levels. He was currently demonstrating to Kotengu-sensei his skill in crossing the hellmoth chain. Using his spiritual control he reduced the density of spiritrons before him while increasing the amount behind him, little did he know that he was doing was similar to the Quincy technique Hirenkyaku. He imagined a circle and stepped into the void. Soaring over the first three hellmoths he rested for a millisecond atop a concentrated knot of spiritual energy balance perfectly on the back of the fourth hellmoth inline. Flash-stepping so quickly that he left an after image floating in the air, Narutop dashed to rest first up to a moth caught in an updraft and then far out to his right to another hellmoth.

To the untrained eye it seemed that a string of Naruto's mimed dancing on air. Dispersing the hellmoths Kotengu motioned for Naruto to follow him and left in the direction of the training halls for **hakuda training**.

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Titanic forces clashed in the air above the forest. The trees swayed violently in the storm winds yet remained firmly rooted in the earth. Frost had turned her crimson mane a glistening silver color and crimson eyes became flecked with amber and azure flakes. A thunderhead roiled ominously with thunder following the stinging acrid smell of ozone formed by crackling lightening. The bank of clouds began to glow with and ethereal inner light and she began to gather her energy to counter what was coming. Ten silver tails thrashed the clouds as they began to radiate with a tremendous inner power. Her muzzle opened revealing fearsome fangs and she cried out. A spherical vacuum of air encompassing a tremendous ball of ultra-concentrated reiatsu streaked forward with a thunderous roar. Real thunder roared as lightening flashed out towards her and the two the attacks clashed in the heavens. Purple energy radiated from the point of impact expanding outwards before what could only be described as a wave of **dark light** was drawn into the point of contact.

The backlash from the dissipating attacks threw her down out of the sky, like an immortal cast down from heaven. The clouds were also dissipated, evaporating in the wake of a circular shockwave.

She came to rest on the koi pond behind the temple. Her human form was unruffled by the strenuous battle that she had recently fought. Her sole companion in this world watched her from beyond the reflective boundary.

"You are growing stronger." It said contemplatively before adding,"It is almost time."

"Almost time for what?" She asked curiously.

The shrine within the temple pulsed and the sky above them rippled.

"It is almost time…to meet, the king!"

Crimson lips stretched into a wide, predatory grin.

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Hakuda, or unarmed shinigami combat techniques, varied in their usage across the different divisions. Some were mere brawlers while others practiced a range of martial arts with varying degrees of skill. Possessing a spiritual weapon that could be summoned instantaneously and could only truly destroyed by killing its wielder made many shinigami complacent when it came to personal physical training in unarmed combat.

The Shihoin Clan and the soldiers of the executive militia used a variety of techniques. Various forms of western boxing and grappling , Wing Chun, Shaolin Kung Fu, Taekkyeon, Bajiquan, Piguaquan, Jujutsu, Jiao Li, Ryukyu Karate, Hapkido and several older martial arts that originated in Soul Society.

Haruka favored a style of kung fu called Choi Lei Fat while Kotengu-sensei was the grandmaster of a martial art called Kukishin-ryu, the nine demon gods style, apparently Kotengu-sensei used to be something called a ninja in his mortal life, cool.

When they had first begun training, Naruto began to understand why Haruka-sensei had been working on improving his stamina and his natural acrobatic skills with gymnastic exercises. According to Kotengu-sensei the approach taken to hakuda by the Shihoin was to learn anything that could be of use and then discard what was not advantageous to their chosen style of combat, all the while continually striving to improve their style's effectiveness.

This pragmatic method of learning was well adopted within the second division, a surprising fact given the highly structured and traditional nature of the military group. One could, however; argue that **pragmatism and adaptability** to a certain extent were in fact the **tradition** of the executive military corps.

Haruka observed as Naruto began stretching before is warm up drills. The whisker-marked blond was an oddity to her senses. The first time that they had brought him to this training hall she had expected to deal with complaints about how boring the exercises were or how strenuous. Instead the young blond had taken to the basic training exercises with an eagerness and determination that both pleased and encouraged her to push him further.

One afternoon while she had been watching Naruto inhale a bowl of rice for lunch, Kotengu Jutaro had brought a group of students from the academy, children of clans that traditionally served in the second division, to visit their training dojo. Since Naruto had become her pupil Haruka had started teaching him Tongzigong, a style of kung fu emphasizing flexibility and acrobatic skill. Naruto had been learning a myriad of flips, falls, tumbles and leg sweeps. She had been subtly encouraging him to incorporate hoho techniques into his fighting style, enhancing his jumps and dodges.

Haruka had therefore jumped at the chance to provide Naruto with some training partners. Naruto's trainng partners however hadn't appreciated being told to spar against a ten year old child. While they hadn't said as much their patronizing looks and attitude was obvious to Haruka who had to stop Kotengu from barking at the students for their complacency. Two boys, brothers Fong Sichong and Fong Shimin were chosen to be Naruto's sparring partners.

The first fight had gone as Haruka had expected. Naruto, using Tongzigong had at first taken the elder Fong off guard with a leaping kick that turned into a tumble in mid air. The boy had passed under the older boy's raised guard and had landed a telling blow with split kick and sweep combination that very nearly ended the match. Sichong had managed to recover from his fall and avoid the follow up attack. Naruto had managed to dodge most of Sichong's counter attacks but was definitely being pressed back by the time Kotengu had called an end to the spar.

Red faced from embarrassment and breathing heavily, Sichong moved aside to allow Fong Shimin to take his place. After a short breather, Naruto prepared to face Shimin. The younger Fong boy seemed to be wary but still seemed to relax his guard confident that Naruto's exertion in the first match would make him easy to defeat as long as he didn't underestimate the boy.

It was this thought that caused him to lightly smirk as he quickly circled to Naruto's left and began a series of kicks at low and medium height designed to keep the boy from closing and wear him down. Naruto struggled to move into striking distance but was forced to dodge the quick series of kicks. His attempts to open some space between them were met with resistance as Shimin continually closed in on Naruto with a furious storm of kicks.

Finally, a spinning back kick broke through Naruto's guard and impacted on his chest. As he was propelled backward he saw the satisfied smile on Shimin's face, the look of vindication on Sichong's and the patronizing looks of pity he glimpsed on the faces of some of the female students and he imagined; the same look on Haruka's face as well.

An unnamed feeling bubbled up within him and a fleeting memory flitted through he back of his mind. To the eyes of the students, one moment Naruto was being tossed backward and the next he disappeared and there was a crash as Shimin was propelled upward into a support rafter in the ceiling. Naruto slowly straightened up from a crouch as Fong Shimin fell in an unconscious heap behind him. Everyone was silent as Sichong and Kotengu dashed over to check Shimin's vitals.

After that incident, Kotengu had decided to teach Naruto Bajiquan, the eight extremes fist fighting style and Piguaquan the chopping palm fighting style to make the best use of his explosive power. Haruka had added instruction in aiki-jujutsu to ensure that Naruto gained some experience fighting against larger opponents and learned how to force them into submission.

Naruto had proceeded to train in with Kotengu-sensei while Haruka-sensei looked on. Inwardly Naruto was concerned that for all of his training he had yet to manifest his zanpakuto, even as an asauchi. Haruka had indicated that his sword was currently manifested in the form of the crystal pendant that he wore as a necklace. Naruto had meditated deeply after each of his training sessions and aside from the strange dreams that plagued him at night he had not made much progress.

Naruto performed his two hundredth elbow strike before switching to his other arm. He could never quite remember the dreams that came to him at night but he supposed it held the secrets of his life. He was not overly concerned however as life among the Shihoin Clan had not left him with much time to himself. As far as Naruto was concerned he would give his all to the future and make a place for himself with his own two hands.

Giving an approving nod to the battered training post Kotengu dismissed Naruto advising that he go meditate after eating lunch.

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He stood at the edge of a mist covered pond. Behind him was a vast temple. Mist obscured his view but He could just barely discern a vast forest in the distance. A faint sound at the front of the temple drew his attention and he raced away to see what it was. As he left, the waters of the pond gently rippled as the mist began to spiral about the lake.

When Naruto finally made his way to the front of the shrine, he was surprised to see a figure dancing in the courtyard. The sleeves of her furisode fluttered in the air as she twirled and leapt from place to place seeming to be one of the leaves that fell from the sacred tree at one end of the pavilion.

"What is your name?"

"Who are you?"

"Tell me, please!"

The woman's crimson lips sketched a sultry smile and moved to form words.

**"…….."**

"I can't hear you!"

**"…..You should ……..remember!" **

"I don't remember any thing of my life."

The shide on the straw rope shimenawa that was tied around the trunk of the sacred tree snapped as the wind picked up. The woman gestured toward him and a stream of fire roiled from the tips of her fingers. Acting on instinct Naruto pulled one of the stone kitsune in front of his body in order to take the brunt of the attack and quickly used shunpo to hide in the leaves of the tree. He tried to suppress his presence but the woman merely turned to face him as if she had expected him to do just that.

**"…You remember, more than you think."**

Before his shocked eyes, mist appeared to gather about her form. Her slender silhouette began to morph and grow larger and larger until a giant canine shadow fell over him. Her fur was a sparkling silver-white with red highlights at the eyes and at the tips of her paws and ten tails. Teeth the size of large scimitars glinted in the starlight while her tails cast strange shadows as they waved in the air or lay upon the pavilion churning the roiling mist. A single tail curled about the tree that he hid in and its tip tickled the silver fur ruff about the fox's neck.

"**Pleased to meet ya…partner!"**

And so it began.

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**AN: Wikipedia is great for research. I left in some character names and references to some pretty awesome people in the martial arts sections. I dread having to make up hadou chants but I'll see what I can do with what I know. To reply to some reviews, yes English is my first language. Even the really nice and encouraging reviews mentioned that the first three chapters were confusing. There's not much that I can say when so many people agree. I certainly didn't aim to make the stories confounding but I did want it be become something that people thought about as the read and re-read to see all of the slight details that added up to give the full picture.**

**If that was not what happened then it was simply my shortcomings as a writer to present the story as I imagined it, the switching scenes were intended to mimic the way that the manga story progresses from scene to scene, at times showing one characters situation and then another. I haven't really changed my approach to writing the story it's just that the scenes are becoming longer and the story has progressed to the point that some things are easier to understand. You can only do so much without a beta reader. TTFN **


	6. Chapter 6

**His life has come to an end yet he continues on surpassing death itself. Taken in by a noble clan what destiny lies before him? Unknowing of his fate he continues on to a destined meeting. Naruto's fate as a member of the Shihoin Clan hangs in the balance! His greatest bane is now his ally?! A mystery looms about Naruto. Just what has he forgotten? **

**I do not own or profit from the anime/manga Naruto or Bleach. This story is just for fun.**

"Speaking"

"_Thinking"_

"**Kyuubi to naruto"**

**Dark Light**

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They fell together, tumbling into an abyss of light and color and sound. She clawed at him, ripping deep rents into his soul, fighting with all of her power to make it back to the surface. Her struggle was futile as his final technique sent him further and further from the mortal realms and by virtue of the seals that bound them inextricably, dragged her with him into the realm of the dead.

In this situation the mass of her power was a disadvantage. She was not being dragged forcibly over some ephemeral boundary as this techniques inspiration would have done. A gaping hole had figuratively opened up under her and she had fallen in. Where as setting her will against him may have saved her from the Fourth's jutsu, this technique pitted her against the laws of all creation, she had no way to escape the pull that was being assisted by her mass. Unless; of course, she gave up most of her powers and struggled to the living realm a mere shadow of her previous self.

She hesitated for the choice was survival or death. The power that had once ensured her security even as it made her the target of covetous men or the oblivion of death.

"_I was almost free, to come so close and to be denied at the last second! To think that I, who have lived for centuries, would meet my end like this!"_

Before she could decide, a dark light began to emanate from the stab wound in the boy's heart. It spread about the young man in a protective manner and then moved to engulf her as well. No sooner than it had done so than the space around them turned dark. Blurred concentric rings of light that passed them were the only indication of movement. A crushing force pressed upon her from all sides and the cocoon of energy than surrounded them began to shrink, forcing her to reduce the size of her form.

A white light shone in the distance. The mysterious force exerted upon them intensified to the point that she weakly transformed into a shape that she had not used in more than five hundred years. A feminine form embraced the body of the naked blond boy. Compressed tails wrapped about their bodies and protected their modesty. The dark light that emanated from the boy and surrounded them formed into a deep violet almost black sphere.

The white light began to grow before becoming a blinding flash. When it cleared the energy bubble seemed to be passing through a giant bank of white clouds glinting in the sunlight. Falling below the cloudbank the sphere entered a world of blinding white nuanced with grey shadow. Spiritual energy formed gigantic streamers that descended from the cloudy sky like rivers of silk, rippling in the wind. Motes of energy fluttered through the air on the form white silk scarves. They twisted like snakes in the sky and were first pushed aside by the passage of the energy sphere and then pulled into its wake.

Plummeting like a falling comet with strange streamers of spiritual energy trailing behind them, they fell toward the floor of the world. Mountains as pale as freshly fallen snow reached up towards them looking like titanic piles of rumpled cloth. Pillars of pale gold light shone down upon the world as the ever present wind blew through the mountains with the sound akin to a long, thin **scream**.

A figure cloaked in white, wearing a strange red mask, stood watching the strange phenomenon as it descended from the sky. It was a Blank, a spirit that had become trapped between the mortal and spiritual realms. Its consciousness and individual identity had been stripped away leaving only a mindless bundle of spiritual power and instinct. Those who patrolled this world and others like it, the shinigami, called this place the **Valley of Screams**.

Another figure, similar to the first, trudged forward until they bumped into each other. Two more figures gathered together until the sphere, looking like a dark pearl in the distance fell to the valley below and landed with a dull muted roar. The white fabric-like earth rippled as a wall of spiritual energy originating from the point of impact raced outwards. Motes of energy were picked up by the shockwave as it rumbled over the mountains creating a chain of avalanches. The distant observers were picked up, torn asunder and crushed beneath the wave.

The winds swirled about the point of impact howling madly as the black sphere rested in a deep crater one hundred feet in diameter. The air above the orb wavered from the heat generated by its passage into the world. Thin cracks marred the surface of the dark sphere and motes of crimson spiritrons floated out from within. The rising trail of spiritual energy acted as a beacon to the denizens of this world, attracting them to the densely packed bundle of fresh memories possessed by the new arrival.

Forming out of the ground and floating down from the air, blanks began to gather, encircling the sphere. For a while they simply stood nearby, observing the curiosity. One of the creatures slowly stepped forward. A red hand reached out and touched the cooling surface of the sphere. The hand was run lightly over the seemingly solid shell before coming to a crack from which red light and motes of energy were being leaked.

Suddenly, the blank reared back its hand and struck the sphere, the tips of its fingers scratched against the surface catching slightly on the edges of the glowing crack. The orb shuddered. As if by some signal the other blanks began to scratch and scrape at any available surface of the orb, trying to tear away the protective shell to get to the memories of the spiritual beings within.

And so, they gathered together, white silk threads rose out of the ground and descended from the sky weaving themselves into the forms of more and more blanks. The climbed over each other, trampled each other as they piled upon their brethren all trying to breach the secrets of that tantalizing core. The sphere contracted and the wire-thin cracks began to glow.

From the outside of the dog pile a faint red glow could be seen. As more and more blanks began to gather the weight of their combined spiritual power began to compress the spherical core to a critical mass. The cracks on the sphere's shell began to grow and glowed with a hot white light. The entire orb was surrounded by a luminous shroud of red energy. One of the blanks that was being crushed against the veil of light began to lose cohesion and radiate heat and light and spiritual power.

From deep within, the chain reaction spread outwards. The mountain of blanks exploded in an incandescent blue mushroom cloud of fire. The fabric of the world buckled as a pale blue orb of energy was pushed out of the Valley of Screams and into Soul Society.

Pale green eyes set in a scarred face looked on in wonder, the man's features shifted to one of calculation, a way to get revenge.

"_If only we could increase the scale of destruction!"_

The blue orb rematerialized in a darkened room…

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He continued meditating upon the boulder in the Shihoin training grounds. His eyes were lightly closed in concentration. He could not yet remember the memories of his past and it was likely that he would never fully recover what had been lost. Still it had been hinted to him that he did retain some memories and that recovering them would lead him to become more in tune with his inner power.

Unnoticed by the boy a faint mist swirled about his form encircling the boulder. He looked like a sage meditating atop a mountain peak. Intangible wisps touched his face and he imagined it to be like the soft caress of a thin furred tail.

To remember, the key to unlocking the powers within him was to remember who he was, what he was and to understand his true nature. For now what that meant eluded him but the faint, incorporeal growls of approval motivated him to continue his progress. The meeting with the fox had raised more questions than it answered and he found himself often wondering as to what the enigmatic creature meant. Unfortunately he would have to find the answers to his questions on his own since his self-proclaimed partner refused to help him do so.

"_Stupid Fox!"_

The early morning light trickled like honey from between the trees. The smell of the morning dew emanated freshly from the grass in the forest clearing. The burbling of the nearby stream was punctuated by birdsong. He sighed contentedly and drank in his surroundings. The ever present serenity of nature calmed him immensely.

He slowly opened his eyes and looked up at the patch of sky visible between the trees from where he sat. The forms of the clouds were reflected in his eyes as slightly oval pupils took in the pure blue sight of heaven. He idly wondered at the forms of some of the cloud masses. A dragon, a bowl of noodles and some type of flower were some of the shapes that his imagination fantasized about. As he gazed and wondered a strange thought came into his head. He could not give it voice but the remembered words seemed to resonate strongly within him.

"_The lotus that blooms twice."_

Golden eyebrows frowned at the thought. He clearly remembered hearing the words and yet, he did not remember hearing them spoken nor did he remember who had spoken them. His hair had been growing out lately and a few strands of it fell into his eyes. His pink lips pouted slightly in thought. It was another one of the things that were growing to bother him after his first successful spiritual meditation.

His lessons in hakuda had progressed so well that his standing in the Shihoin clan was no longer in question, for the moment anyway. The clan members had begun to greet and speak to him as if he were one of their own. Haruka had begun to speak to him of feats of shunpo that she had seen Yoruichi use and he had begun experimenting himself. He had especial grown fond of leaving a solid object within one of his after images to give a further impression of solidity. Using this trick took more time than the regular shunpo but moving weights at such high speeds was such a useful exercise he didn't want to give it up. So instead Naruto worked on increasing the speed of his movement by using shunpo to carry objects that weighed more than he did.

Kotengu-sensei had been teaching him Bajiquan and Piguaquan. The low, deep stances and strikes of the former fighting system had taught him how to maximize the explosive power of his blows. The open handed attacks and the larger more powerful chops of latter style had taught him balance and power. At Haruka's encouragement he had combined what he learned with that mysterious, fast paced kenpo that he had used to defeat Fong Shimin. Low deep attacks were included in high speed shunpo movements and the larger arm movements were complimented by learning to quickly position himself to attack from odd angles and the powerful kicks of the half-remembered style.

To ensure that he was capable of taking on larger opponents Haruka's Aiki jujutsu training taught Naruto how to control his centerline and how to dominate or compromise his opponents balance. It was slow going considering that Naruto was entering an awkward phase in his physical development and the fact that the concept of yielding to force to attain victory did not suit his temperament.

Fortunately his early gymnastic training had given him a graceful body that negated most of the awkwardness of getting used to having longer arms and legs. His comparatively small size for a person in a twelve year old body of a little more than four feet was actually and advantage since his opponents generally had a higher center of gravity than he did.

In order to take full advantage of his smaller frame Haruka had been training Naruto to throw large vases filled with sand. She also demanded that he practice using shunpo to carry them on his back. By training to find and manipulate the balance of his opponents he was gaining insight into how opponents reacted to being struck and thrown. Grappling techniques were also included as teaching Naruto how to subdue opponents if unarmed was an important skill to learn.

The morning air was cold on his bare shoulders. He wore a black short sleeveless haori with that was tucked into a black hakama and bound at the waist with an orange sash that was tightly knotted at the front. His hands and feet were wrapped in black bandages that extended up to his ankles and just below his elbows. Many people outside of the clan having heard of him through the academy students that had come with Kotengu-sensei were beginning to refer to Naruto as the young Shihoin genius or shishi tensai the lion prodigy because of his unusually bright, wild blond hair. He hated the word prodigy, even when Kotengu-sensei used it to describe him.

The black bandages did not just bind his joints and bones to reinforce them against breakage; they covered the numerous scars that accumulated over his hands and feet from the hard pace of training that he was subjected to. Naruto saw his training under his sensei as a way to repay his debt to the Shihoin clan, a debt that he took seriously.

The faint whistling sound was his only warning that something was heading towards him. Pivoting on his left hand he swung around and down to the back of the boulder using it as cover against the rain of kunai to his right. Focusing reiatsu into his fingers and toes he channeled just enough create a magnetic attraction to the reiatsu in the boulder and cling to its side with just one hand and his feet.

Using his free hand Naruto pulled out two of his training knives and taking careful aim threw them at full force one after the other at his aggressor before using shunpo to escape. The female attacker deflected the first blade with a tantou and then ducked to avoid the second that had been hidden in the shadow of the first. When she ducked however she revealed the fact that Naruto was standing behind her having used shunpo to get behind her. As the blade passed overhead he reached out to catch it with great dexterity and then plunge it into the back of what turned out to be an after image when the woman used utsusemi or the empty cicada technique to evade him.

Focusing momentarily, he utilized the basics of hoho to lend power to his weapon arm and the air whistled as his arm blurred to his right and he released the kunai at the surprised woman who was using shunpo to close in for an attack just outside of his peripheral vision.

His opponent was forced to skid to a stop and bent backwards until her head was at the level of her waist just to avoid having the blade plunge into her heart. The boy was not able to press his advantage however as a grey metal jo, or short staff, made from a spirit repelling material and around a meter in length flashed down toward his head from behind. He attempted to use senka to get behind this new antagonist and strike yjem from behind but using a method similar to the one that Naruto had used to throw the kunai the man focused his reiatsu into his arms to allow him drastically speed up the movements of the short staff. His approach was blocked from one side and then another before the man spun the jo at the middle and struck him with the end in his chest as if it were a cue stick.

Naruto fell from the tree gasping at the pain in his sternum, gathering his strength he flash stepped out of the way of a slashing attack before landing on the ground and using a series of back flips to avoid the follow up attacks with jo and tantou before diving into the foliage. Jumping from branch to branch in the trees he deliberately mistimed ajump in order to avoid a brace of hari and bo shuriken that impaled the branch before him. Gripping the end of the branch as he fell below it Naruto channeled reiatsu into his arms to bend the branch down and to one side with a combination of strength and momentum.

The move arrested his downward movement and allowed him to avoid a second brace of shuriken that passed within inches of his feet. Using the bent tree branch a pivot he levered his body into a somersault, releasing the branch while giving himself a momentary view behind him and allowing him to clear the last few feet between the forest and the small stream.

The bent branch snapped back into place releasing its load of impaled shuriken in the direction of his attackers. A high pitched cry told him that his trick had worked on at least one opponent. Landing in the streams ankle high water he quickly reached into the stream and gathered two flat rocks working on them hastily in order to prepare for the opponent to come.

A man burst out of the foliage trying to land a strike with a series of quick thrusts that turned into slashing spins that were aimed at the neck, head, ribs and knees in that order. Naruto carefully stepped backward evading the attacks and taking a blow on the forearm before ducking to avoid a slash at his face and then with a quick wind-up tossed an object at the man which was instinctively blocked by the jo. This proved to be a mistake as the object turned out to be a flat river stone wrapped in a monkey fist knot made from a length of orange material that was torn from his sash. The makeshift weighted rope wrapped around the jo and Naruto yanked downward before performing a leaping kick.

As soon as the man had felt the forceful tug on the short staff he had braced himself by leaning slightly backward. The pressure had disappeared when the boy performed the leaping kick causing the man to step backward right into Naruto's trap. Naruto had done two things while waiting for Kotengu-sensei to attack him. He had selected a spot in the stream where the fast, flowing water of the small stream had over time eroded the sand at the bottom of the waterway to create small but deep pits that a person could break their legs in if they stepped into one while hurrying across the water, by gathering reiatsu to the soles of his feet he had created invisible platforms a little below the surface of the water in order to avoid falling into this trap. The second thing that he did was to gather two flat river stones and tear off a six foot long strip of cloth from his sash in order to create a monkey fist meteor hammer.

Because doing so requires focus and energy, unless the depth of the water posed a significant hindrance to combat, the opposing shinigami did not bother to stand on the surface of the seemingly shallow stream. While the wading pool that he stepped in was not deep, his footing was compromised just long enough for Naruto's kick to reach him. Raising the jo to receive the brunt of the force, he was surprised when Naruto instead hooked his leg around the short staff and kicked off of Kotengu's chest with the his other leg. To prevent him from holding on to jo, Naruto swung the other end of the meteor hammer at the older man's temple.

Having no other choice, Kotengu released the jo and jumped backward, this time landing on the surface of the water. Naruto stood facing the man holding the jo in a ready position. They stood facing each other for a moment before Haruka appeared on a tree branch on the banks of the stream. She was nursing a fading bruise on her left arm.

"That's enough for now. Good work Naruto."

Bowing to his teachers Naruto accompanied them to the main training hall while listening to their critique of the fight. Haruka had been in the middle of a jump recovering from throwing the second brace of shuriken when he had released the branch. She had used shunpo to escape the brunt of the attack but the weapons had flown in such a wide and unpredictable spread that it allowed the blunt end of one of the bo shuriken to graze her arm and hip.

Kotengu was pleased by his use of terrain in combat and the creation of an improvised weapon though he advised that Naruto work on his spiritual awareness as he recalled to Naruto's embarrassment that he had actually stopped hiding his presence at the sametime that Haruka did at the beginning of the fight.

Aching from strenuous exertion and training injuries Naruto carefully entered the men's bathing area and sat in the pool of warm water. Sighing as his muscles loosened, he thought about the nodachi in his room that was almost as long as he was tall.

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_Before his shocked eyes, mist appeared to gather about her form. Her slender silhouette began to morph and grow larger and larger until a giant canine shadow fell over him. Her fur was a sparkling silver-white with red highlights at the eyes and at the tips of her paws and ten tails. Teeth the size of large scimitars glinted in the starlight while her tails cast strange shadows as the waved in the air or lay upon the pavilion churning the roiling mist. A single tail curled about the tree that he hid in and its tip tickled the silver fur ruff about the fox's neck._

"**Pleased to meet ya…partner!"**

It was surreal there was no other way to describe it. A giant ten tailed fox was leering at him,** a giant ten tailed fox was leering at him.** He had been told to expect the unexpected when he had begun his spiritual meditation but this was just insane!

First of all he was pretty sure that foxes didn't become that big, afterlife or no afterlife, second he was reasonable certain that the bitch had looked disappointed that he had avoided that gout of fire even as she seemed to expect it. Naruto was seriously reconsidering this whole endeavor while a third delirious thought made its way into his increasingly hysterical mind.

"_My, what big teeth you have!"_

It seemed that the creature picked up on his thoughts enough to increase its leer into a full bodied teeth glinting grin that showed off canines the length of a grown man's leg. It seemed to be waiting for him to say something.

"_Ok, Naruto, your zanpakuto is a monster fox from one of Kotengu-sensei's really bad drinking stories and it 'might' be trying to kill you."_

Gathering himself he threw out the first two responses as being too wimpy or confrontational and schooling his features he delivered what he hoped would seem a gesture of peace that was not too submissive.

"Um, a five minute gargle of freshly crushed mint leaves would probably help with your halitosis."

Yup, diplomacy was his middle name…at least he hoped it was.

Crimson eyes stared into solicitous blue in shock. In a blinding flash the titanic fox transformed into the form of a highly irritated woman.

"**Even if the universe has shifted from under us** **at least we can still count on the fact that you will always be an idiot!"**

"Hey!!"

The woman gestured to their surroundings abstractedly.

"**This is your fault! You did this to me!"**

He frowned and answered.

"Listen lady I already told you that I don't remember anything of my past life!"

"**You have to remember, at least a little or this would not be possible, until you begin to remember we cannot synchronize!"**

This was beginning to become irritating for him, he snapped at her testily and instantly knew that it was the wrong thing to do.

"Why don't you remind me?"

She flushed angrily and gave a look that almost made him run back up the tree.

"**I would love to remind you of your true place in the world worm… I have … to lend you my power in order to keep you alive."**

"But you don't want to help me? Aren't you my zanpakuto?"

"…**no…"**

Her voice was becoming distant.

"**It's pointless if you can't hear it."**

"What do you mean no? What are you talking about?"

As a wide gulf opened between them and the outer world intruded a single word uttered by a voice he did not recognize made its way to him.

"_**Remember" **_

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**AN: I'd like to thank the reader who recommended the tome of battle it was very informative and I'd also like to point out that its been a while since I've just written a story for fun and this is my first attempt at something of this length and genre. The reviews that I did get were pretty telling for the most part and they helped me improve the quality of my story.**

**Then there's the person who jumped in afterward to join in on the fun. I've actually haven't taken the criticism too deeply to heart, no crying, or locking myself in the bathroom or any of that but after being told the same thing like thirty eight times I started being grateful to the people who had good recommendations to add to their comments. **

**I agree that the Time skips were awkward but they do serve a purpose in the later parts of the story. And I think eventually people will stop going huh? And start going so that's what it was! I did originally rate this story M but decided to go with T until it later on. The thought of having perverts read this story makes me feel too much like Jiraiya. **


	7. Chapter 7

**His life has come to an end yet he continues on surpassing death itself. Taken in by a noble clan what destiny lies before him? Unknowing of his fate he continues on to a destined meeting. Naruto's fate as a member of the Shihoin Clan hangs in the balance! His greatest bane is now his ally?! A mystery looms about Naruto. Just what has he forgotten? And having remembered, he proceeds into an uncertain future.**

**I do not own or profit from the anime/manga Naruto or Bleach. This story is just for fun.**

"Speaking"

"_Thinking"_

"**Kyuubi to naruto"**

"_**Mugen to naruto"**_

**((Hollow speak))**

**Remember,**

**And they gathered together**

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In the summer of Naruto's one hundred and fortieth year in Sereitei, Shihoin Hanshou was officially decommissioned. It was a time of change in many ways for Naruto, his life among the Shihoin and Soul Society at large was about to change.

Haruka had moved on to teaching Naruto various kidou incantations for both the use of destruction spells or hadou and binding spells of bakudou. More than anything, it was slow going learning the demon arts which was surprising given his skills at hoho. It seemed that whatever kidou he used would form perfectly and then become disrupted by a strange counter-flow of reiatsu from within him, making his techniques unpredictable at best and at worst, explode in his face as had happened many times to Naruto's chagrin.

His hakuda training was fast approaching the point where he would need to experiment on his own while maintaining his edge through sparring; Kotengu had been after Naruto to further his efforts to meditate with his asauchi. It was frustrating but at least he seemed to have finally grown tall enough that he wouldn't look like an idiot carrying around a nodachi with a four foot long blade on his five foot tall frame.

Shihoin Yoruichi of whom Naruto had seen rarely had been inaugurated in her father's place as leader of both the second division and commander in chief of Special Forces operations. After these announcements had been made to the public, Hanshou-sama had stepped down from his position as leader of the clan in favor of Yoruichi, a genius who had risen to the top ranks of Soul Society in a little less than two hundred years.

Some days after the inauguration ceremony for Yoruichi, something had happened to him that would solve at least two of his problems. **He began to remember.**

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A solemn procession crossed the bridge leading away from the commemoration room. The procession progressed in three parts. First, lower ranking members of the Shihoin clan with their spouses and personal guards passed by silently. Within this group a blond-haired young man about five feet tall followed along, the light scattered by his hair forming a figurative halo.

A second group of elite Shihoin guards followed, surrounding the old clan head who walked ahead of the new head Yoruichi, who was riding in a palanquin. A few minutes later a group consisting of various minor noble families and servants of the Shihoin Clan followed after. A young girl watched in awe as Yoruichi passed by above her, silhouetted by the setting sun. She listened to her father's words and then and there promised to give her life for the woman who stood above her, **like a god.**

Dark, square-rimmed frames were held carelessly in his hands, as chestnut brown eyes took in the spectacle of the 'noble' clans. Dogs serving the king of heaven, having no concept of just how far they had fallen nor any desire to breach heaven's ban. Content with what scraps came their way so long as the status quo was maintained.

"_You know neither the height of heaven nor the depth of the sea!"_

Expressionless, he donned his glasses and turned on his heel.

"_No matter, you will learn!"_

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Boring, the entire ceremony and the meeting after had been so incredibly boring that Naruto had been hard pressed not to yawn. He also needed to use the bathroom but had to hold it in for hours! The one spot of humor in the whole ordeal was watching the utterly trapped expression on Kisuke's face when it was announced that he was being promoted to third seat rank and would be serving directly under Yoruichi. She had given him a fleeting look that was so predatory that the man had gone bug-eyed and started sweating from nervousness.

Other than that moment, Yoruichi had been the picture perfect Shihoin Clan Head. This meant that she was reserved, expressionless and with the exception of Haruka and her father looked at you like you were a bug that had crawled underfoot. Naruto also wasn't treated this way though, the look Yoruichi reserved for him was the one given to a dog that had defecated on the carpet and was now trying to eat the mess.

"_Guess she's still angry about the bathroom incident?"_

No-one other than Wei-san knew just what Naruto had said to so thoroughly piss Yoruichi off that day. If it were simply the fact that he had accidentally walked in on her then she would have already forgiven him if not for an innocent question.

"Do you know these are sagging?"

He had been careful to generously nod in approval at her breasts whenever he saw her but for some strange reason reminding her of the fact that it was alright to have slightly saggy breasts didn't seem to help his case. For the sake of the ever clueless boy it was good that he met Yoruichi rarely.

The Clan had now gathered in their meeting room to discuss the changes that lay ahead. Hanshou-sama would be taking up residence in the living area reserved for members of the central forty six as he would be taking up the position as the Shihoin representative to the august body. Yoruichi would have her hands full dealing with her new duties so the minor day to day business of running the clan would be taken care of by Yoruichi's cousin Haruka, a former student of Hanshou, who had taken a leave of absence from the fifth division to train Yoruichi and later Naruto. Naruto didn't know how this would affect him but he was quietly relieved to see Haruka smile comfortingly at him and gesture for him to follow her when the meeting finally ended.

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He waited patiently for the servant to announce him at the door. As he was taught he bowed to his teachers at the entrance before taking a seat and waiting for the attendant to withdraw. It was a small room being only ten feet square, the wooden floor was covered by tatami mats. He smiled politely, not once betraying his anxiety as he waited to hear his future. Kotengu Jutaro and Shihoin Haruka watched with satisfaction as Naruto maintained a calm outward appearance.

The boy had spent the majority of his early years training with his sensei and learning from them. It showed in his behavior toward others, normally calm and genial in public his sharp blue eyes constantly examined his surroundings training him to anticipate surprise attacks. In interactions with most other members of the family he was often silent and exactingly polite. It was only with a select few individuals did Naruto show some semblance of his true self.

Scrawling rude words on Kotengu-sensei's forehead when the man came back from a night of drinking with friends in the eleventh division, and turning their training sessions with Haruka into a free-for-all where knives, stones and even mud were slung at her by prepared traps were some examples of Naruto's weird sense of humor. He followed orders without comment most of the time and when he succeeded, whether at learning a technique or surprising them with his amazing skill at shunpo, Naruto would give his sensei a most brilliant and playful smile.

Seeing the boy settle down Haruka spoke,

"As you have been informed, I will now be in charge of securing daily operations within the Shihoin Clan. As a result of this, Naruto, I will not be able to continue as your instructor."

While she said this Naruto had paled slightly but with visible effort held his tongue. She smiled and continued.

"Kotengu-sensei has offered to continue your personal training but we have judged that the only way to continue your progress would be to induct you in the Special Forces program."

As blue eyes widened in shock, Kotengu-sensei continued on where Haruka had left off.

"This posting however is contingent on your ability to master you spiritual power. To that end you will be joining the senior advanced class of the shinigami academy for the next two years. Acquit yourself accordingly and joining the Special Forces will be just a formality."

Anxious or not, there was only one answer that he could give after having being told that.

"Hai!"

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The next day, outfitted in the robes of a senior student and carrying a nodachi wrapped in grey cloth slung across his back, Naruto made his way through the throngs of people entering the Shinigami academy. He hid his nervousness behind a mild, slightly affable expression of interest. Fortunately not many people seemed to be paying much attention to him as students hurried about from place to place going to their classes or whatever else they were doing. Naruto used this opportunity to observe his surroundings and the people's behavior as the students interacted with each other. It seemed that being beneath notice was useful.

A large imposing figure barreled around the corner as Naruto stepped into the training field. From the expressions of the other students the fuming man was not someone to cross. Naruto tried to step aside but the man moved with quick strides and either didn't see Naruto or didn't bother to avoid bumping into him. Perhaps he was a shade too unnoticeable.

Naruto's uncanny balance prevented him form falling, surprisingly the larger man grunted in pain where his elbow had struck Naruto's shoulder.

"You!" He barked, "Watch where you're going, fucking shrimp!" He grabbed Naruto's shoulder and shook it as he yelled. He then let go and turned away slightly at the muttering of a group of nearby female students who looked scandalized.

He tried, he honestly really tried. Forcing his face to give an affable smile he bowed to the senior student and spoke with false humility.

"I apologize, sempai for knocking into you sir, I will seek to be less clumsy in the future…."

It would have worked. The older student even gave him a mollified sneer of approval, seeming to decide that he would generously forgive his slight.

"Its good to see that you're polite at least shrimp. Heard of the Great Butamaru now have you? Run along while I'm in a good mood, little children aren't allowed to mess around in the shinigami academy without their wet nurses."

It would have worked, had his act and false smile not brought up another memory of another conversation long ago that slipped past his guard and out of his mouth.

"Dickless."

The watching students struggled to contain their amusement and the group of female shinigami trainees failed to hold back a short chorus of titters. The Larger man gave a strangled sound and a grotesquely thick bunch of veins began to throb on the upper right side of his forehead.

"What was that fucker?!"

Naruto took in the fact that even the students in the training field had stopped what they were doing to watch at that outburst. He inwardly sighed and complained about the grief that his memories were causing him even though they were lost to him. None of this escaped to his face as Naruto maintained an expression of geniality and affable amusement. The echoes of the past were especially strong as he was almost compelled to speak again.

"I would repeat what I said if I thought that you were anything more than a dickless Neanderthal running about dragging your knuckles on the floor spewing spit every time you tried to talk."

He drew himself upward and looked the shocked man square in the eyes while maintaining a practiced look of innocence. With a gentle smile that softened the other man's anger he politely enquired.

"All this fuck this, fuck that, feeling a bit repressed, ain't cha Ugly?"

The reaction was simple, predictable and easily avoidable. That's why Naruto didn't dodge the older man's punch but met it full on with a left straight of his own, adding just a touch of reiatsu to avoid broken fingers.

The two stood there for a second, one with an expression of unbridled rage and the other with narrow eyed amusement. Black filled with pain as the man withdrew a hand filled with broken fingers. When Butamaru reached for his zanpakuto with his left hand Naruto decided that enough was enough. Leaping into the other man's personal space he kicked the hilt of the offending sword squarely, forcing it back into the sheath. In the same motion Naruto delivered a crescent kick to the large man's temple.

The large man tumbled to the ground in a boneless heap with the expression of a pole-axed cow; the other students looked on in shock. Naruto gasped out loud and slapped his forehead.

"I'm late for class; can anyone tell me where to find the forth advanced training group?"

A voice sounded from behind him and Naruto turned to see a tall and muscular man watching him with a calculating gaze.

"You're not late, I was sent to greet you, and my name is Kusajishi Waka. I'd say I was pleased to meet you but it looks like you've been fighting, on your first day no less!"

The man sighed at Naruto's sheepish look and walked over to nudge the fallen man with his foot. Getting no response he gestured to two nearby male students and spoke.

"You two, yes I mean you, take this waste of flesh to the healer's room."

Turning to Naruto he frowned sternly.

"I saw everything, I heard everything too. I don't approve of you goading him into a fight but I like the way that you held your own. For future reference, unauthorized fights within the academy precincts are grounds for withdrawal. That Butamaru has already been skating on thin ice; perhaps this experience will open his eyes to that fact."

Naruto bowed and uttered a further apology before rising and following the instructor out of the training field.

Walking briskly, Waka-sensei spoke without looking at Naruto.

"I don't know how suitable you are to join the academy senior advanced class but The Shihoin clan was all gung ho for it."

Giving Naruto a brief, flat stare, he continued.

"You're joining in the middle of the semester so you'll either keep up or be shifted to a class more suited to your abilities."

Naruto bristled a little on the inside but only smiled in reply.

"I'll try to keep up. At what point in training is the class at?"

Waka-sensei grinned humorlessly and ran a scarred hand through thick black hair. Dark brown eyes looked at Naruto intensely as they walked up to an open senkaimon gate. A pair of black jigokucho or hellmoth butterflies landed gently on their shoulders.

"We will be journeying into the real world to practice slaying Hollows."

Naruto's eyes widened as Waka continued on into the gateway, calling behind him.

"Don't die."

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She watched in interest as the events played out through the zenchikikan. The ripples in the sky distorted the movement of the clouds as she looked upon what were the outskirts of the town of Mahadri in the Indian state of Goparashtra in the early 1800's. Lush forests were illuminated by starlight as the sound of the Arabian sea was heard in the background. The few gaslights from the isolated town could be seen far of in the distance.

The other looked on grimly, in her arms were held an unwrapped nodachi. Like the one that had been given to Naruto the tsuba of the sword was made from a dark black metal and decorated with silver clouds. The handle of the sword was wrapped in blue sharkskin that was tightly wrapped and held in place by dark blue cords forming a spiraling menuki. The saya was of a dark black laquered wood covered in silver-leaf images depicting foxes gathering in a field under a cloudy sky. The surface of the wood at the base of the saya contained the image of dark grey lightening coming out of the clouds. The threads of lightening were slightly raised.

A pair of instructors along with several students from the graduating class stood before the twenty-eight members of advanced training group four. The members of group four were divided into groups of four and paired with two students from the graduating class who would lead them to their training area.

Naruto was paired with three bemused students, Abe Mai, a tall woman with glasses and mousy brown hair; Gennosuke Seimei a rather short and stocky man with hairy arms; and Houko Setsuna, a rather attractive, dark-haired girl who seemed to view Naruto with disdain. The four were paired with two men at Waka-sensei's command, a light blond, stern-looking man with glasses and another thin man with slightly graying hair. The two did not bother to introduce themselves but the looks that passed between Mai and the blond suggested that they had met before.

Clearing his throat, Waka-sensei spoke loudly in order to be heard over the muttering of the students.

"As you were told in your last class, tonight you will be training to locate and defeat hollows. The science group has loaned us their new hollow simulators with instructions to test you against them as thoroughly as possible. I'm told that they even feel like the real thing but I doubt it. They are still capable of doing harm if fought by an incompetent so I suggest that the weaker members of your team not try to take one on alone."

It was obvious by the looks that Naruto was receiving just who everyone thought was the 'weaker member'. Naruto simply smiled.

As the teams began to move off and the instructors joined the perimeter two pairs of crimson eyes watched from the forest floor. Filled with malice, they traced the movements of the teams before vanishing into a mist of darkness.

The crimson haired woman with silver highlights looked to the other.

"**Should we warn him?"**

The reflection answered calmly.

"_**He already suspects, this may be what he needs to cross the threshold."**_

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Naruto took another steadying breath. He had tried to bring up the subject of the ominous presence that he had felt back at the clearing with the others but Setsuna had derisively interrupted him and asked if he wanted them to scare off the evil spirits. The girl seemed to resent him for the fact that he had been placed in the advanced class ahead of students who had attended the academy for longer.

It had taken effort not to snap at her especially since it caused the others, who at least were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, to dismiss him out of hand. He wasn't even sure if Mai's blond friend, Sakaki as she had called him, would speak to the instructors like he had asked.

As they arrived at their location and no further evidence that anything was amiss came up, Naruto resolved to drop the issue for the moment.

They had separated from the student supervisors and divided into teams of two to scour the area. After a few minutes of arguing Naruto had been handed off to Setsuna like a burden. It was at times like this that Naruto resented his comparatively youthful appearance. Seeking to enter the good graces of the girl he had been silent and attentive of his surroundings, at one time he scaled a tree to see if they could spot their target. It had all been taken in by the girl with an air of stubborn resentment.

After several minutes of fruitless searching they began to make their way back through the forest to their meeting spot in a clearing. On the way Naruto tried to make conversation.

"Ah Setsuna-san, is this the first time that you have been out on one of these 'field trips'?"

The girl ignored him for just long enough to be rude then sneered.

"Don't call me by my first name!"

He smiled sheepishly, "It seems that you don't like me Houko-san."

Be fore the girl could answer something dashed out of the trees. Naruto stiffened and Stesuna drew her zanpakuto, a katana with a grey handle. Setsuna relaxed when it turned out to be Seimei who was standing under the shadows of the trees. With a look of relief and minute embarrassment Setsuna called out as she walked toward him..

"Seimei-baka, why did you leave Mai-san alone? Yo-"

Whatever she was about to say was lost as Naruto quickly swept her off of her feet.

"What the hell are you doi- aaaaaaaaaaahh"

Setsuna's outrage was curtailed by three things. First, was the blank staring eyes of Abe Mai whose body had been bitten in half and the two sections the lower part of which now consisted of which now consisted of part of her lower leg and a foot. Second, was the bladed tail of a D-ranked hollow named Fizt Styker that had passed through the space that her neck would have been and embedded in the trunk of a tree. The third reason that caused her to scream was the metal spike that withdrew from the back of Seimei's head and proved to be connected to the end of the tongue of the B-class hollow Cuspe Salivar.

The monster sneered in a strangely echoing voice.

**((Good instincts boy, now if only your friends paid attention! Did you know them well?))**

Fizt Stryker's tail dislodged from the tree but by then Setsuna and Naruto had already put some distance between them and the two hollows.

"We should retreat." Naruto opined.

Setsuna ignored him completely and instead snarled.

"Bastard, what did you do to Seimei!"

Her anger only seemed to please the hollow.

**((Its good to know the name of a fine delicacy, the woman was trash though Ahahahahahaha!))**

The other hollow seemed to use her shock as an opportunity to attack. As it wound its way toward her with frightening speed Naruto appeared before it and began to draw his sword for an overhand strike.

With a shriek of rage Setsuna charged at Cuspe Salivar even as the hollow laughed and began to draw her away from Naruto.

Styker blocked the overhand strike with a clawed hand before attacking with his tail.

**((A short sword?)) **

The sword that Naruto had drawn with his right hand was a kodachi and in his left disguised as the base of a nodachi's saya, was a second kodachi which he used to block Strykers blade tail. In the back of Naruto's mind a voice murmured.

**((How did it feel watching your comrade slide off the tip of my tongue?))** Cuspe Salivar taunted Setsuna relentlessly as she chased him out of the clearing.

She snarled wordlessly and slashed at his tongue when it came too close. The baboon shaped hollow with a mottled green and white mask leapt into the trees and looked down on her.

**((Are all your comrades so tasty? Maybe I should skull rape them too?)) **

The voices were growing louder in Naruto's mind as Fizt Stryker's serpentine body coiled and flexed. It swung its free arm and Naruto was knocked back in a moment of distraction as images swam before his eyes. The sight of the sunrise over a familiar forest; sparring with a man in green spandex, a dark-haired boy, and a pink-haired girl facing him as they stood before a strangely dressed man, flying through the air with his godfather, and the day he killed a god.

In one breathtaking moment Naruto's world expanded. There were many things that he didn't know. He couldn't remember the names of any of the people that he remembered, yet he knew that there were more important people that he had forgotten. An image of wet, soft lips and pale lavender eyes crossed his mind. He didn't know how far away he'd ended up from home or what had happened to his body but he remembered grieving for someone. Was it his father? Or was it his brother? Or maybe it was a friend?

As he wondered and clutched at his head the world seemed to slow down and the pouncing Fizt Stryker paused in mid air as a mist began to gather. A sense of immense frustration and rage began to well within him and the color began to fade from the world. Two hands touched each of his shoulders and spoke.

"**Its time/**_**Its time**_**"**

They stood before him within his inner world, mist obscured the earth and a massive hurricane swirled in the skies above. Two women stood before him twins in the manner of their dress and appearance. However, where one wore a furisode depicting a bonfire on a cloudless night, the other wore a furisode depicting the sunlight breaking through the clouds above a field. One had fiery crimson hair with silver highlights, the other had glinting silver hair with red highlights. They were enantiomers, equal and opposite, yin and yang, his right hand and his left. Finally he could hear them and they spoke as one.

"_**Until you regained the fragments of your memory you would not understand what is happening"**_

"**The technique that you used forced the shinigami to transfer some of his power to you"**

"_**Doing so fully awakened the dormant power that you were already primitively using"**_

"**And the extra reiatsu was transferred to me."**

"You are the Kyuubi!" He gagged.

"**The Kyuubi no longer."**

"And you…" He looked at the silver haired lady, "You are my spiritual power?"

"_**A combination of your spiritual power and hers made manifest. The seal however ensures that it is your power that rules this world." **_

"**Unfortunately I am only able to use my power to aid you."** The red haired lady informed him.

"What seal? I don't remember everything." He said desperately.

"**Nor will you/**_**Nor will you**_**"** They replied mercilessly.

"_**We are ephermal"**_

"**We exist in all things in nature"**

"_**As uzumaki draws wind and wave together, so do we part, from form to formless, from finite to infinite; we are **__**Mugen no Murakumo**__** remember our name when you call upon us!"**_

The world sped up again and Fizt Stryker triumphantly bit down on Naruto's head, or rather through his head. It was just like the pair of butterfly swords that plunged into the back of the hollow's head and out through his mask before being dragged to towards either ear, bisecting his face. The blades were connected to knuckle duster hand-guards and had a short blue flag wrapped around a prong that protruded from a section of the hand-guard at the dull edge of the blade allowing the user to catch swords like a sai.

Naruto watched apathetically as the hollow gave a final howl before it was purified. Turning toward the source of a pain filled scream he flash-stepped there in time to see Cuspe plunge his spike-tipped tongue into Setsuna's stomach.

**"There are things that we will be able to accomplish as we synchronize. This is one of them, you need only announce the incantation"**

Twirling one of the butterfly swords by the hand-guard the weapons swirled into mist and transformed into a kusarigama with fluttering blue flags attached to both weight and scythe. A fluttering blue blur connected to a clanking metal chain shot toward Cuspe Salivar as he closed in on the crumpled form of the injured woman.

**"Dominator!"**

Encircling both the hollow and a tree the chain bound the two together drawing the hollow away from the injured woman.

**"Mask of flesh and blood. All living beings, fluttering. That which has the name human!"**

Roaring impotently the hollow tried to break the chain to get to Setsuna, frustrated at being denied the means to sate its hunger.

**"Truth and temperance."**

He needed to finish this fast before the hollow decided to vanish into heuco mundo!

**"Slightly imbed your claws into the walls of innocent dreams."**

Swinging around the tree he was standing on using the ever extending chain, he pulled the chain tighter and took careful aim.

**"Sokatsu!"**

"Hadou 33: Pale Fire, Crash Down!"

A burst of blue spiritual energy shoots from the palm of Naruto's hand pouring down the chain and impacts upon Cuspe Salivar, incinerating both him an the tree he was tied to.

The clouds gathered together and it began to rain.

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**AN: I need to do some research. Unfortunately what's a prank for a kid is a crime for a grown up. I upgraded the rating to M because of the gore in this chapter and perhaps future adult themes. It's nothing too extreme though; I would just rather be safe than sorry.**

**About Mugen no Murakumo, originally it was a sword called Mugen that mimicked the forms of other shinigami weapons but I'd seen that done about twice. This is what happens when an unoriginal mind becomes imaginative and the reason that I like fanfiction. I kept the Mugen and tacked on Murakumo from Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi since Susanoo was one of the names I had considered.**

**It fit with the theme. I could have made Naruto a bad-ass, chakra wielding, kyuubified, hollowfied, Ichigo clone but I tend to side with Sado Yasutora on the topic of power. There is no such thing as an absolute power in this story. It changes depending on the circumstances and situation. Naruto doesn't share Kurosaki Ichigo's personality and motivations. He'll get strong in his own way. I acknowledge the need to expand on Naruto's personality and wanted to wait until he at least achieved shikai. TTFN**


	8. Chapter 8

**His life has come to an end yet he continues on surpassing death itself. Taken in by a noble clan what destiny lies before him? Unknowing of his fate he continues on to a destined meeting. Naruto's fate as a member of the Shihoin Clan hangs in the balance! His greatest bane is now his ally?! A mystery looms about Naruto. Just what has he forgotten? And having remembered he proceeds into an uncertain future. Steeped in darkness, what bloody path does he walk.**

**I do not own or profit from the anime/manga Naruto or Bleach. This story is just for fun.**

"Speaking"

"_Thinking"_

"**Kyuubi to naruto"**

"_**Mugen to naruto"**_

**Hollow speak**

**Threshold**

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**Inner World**

She danced in the silent pavilion, under the churning skies. The sleeves of her furisode lowed through the air like the wings of a soaring egret. The thunder boomed like a giant drum being beaten. The echoing sound was the heartbeat of her world. Boom, Boom, Boom, Rumble, Boom, Boom, Boom she jumped at each thunderous roar in a graceful pirouette, soaring for a time like a leaf, adrift in the wind. Slowly she drifted down to land on the delicate toes of tattooed feet. Her eyes closed, her crimson hair wild, she dreamed as she drifted about times long ago.

She was origin of Mugen, if there were such a thing. Her powers within this realm, and the possibilities that she had glimpsed were infinite. She danced as she dreamed pondering all things in nature.

The air held the scent of coming rain, like the wistful promise of a departed lover, there but beyond tangible reach. She swayed as she danced, and the blue, silk scarf that she held in her hand fluttered and snapped in the air. Lightening flashed and she increased her tempo. The scarf twisted and twirled, weaving arcane patterns as it traced a path in the wind. If viewed on its own the cloth looked almost like a dragon weaving against the sky.

She leapt atop the shrine, agilely finding near nonexistent footholds as she progressed to the highest point on the roof. A slim, darkly tanned leg, as far up to her hip, could be seen between the folds. Glistening lips widened and long canine fangs could be seen as she gave a feral smile. She paused on one foot, atop the head of a reclining stone fox and tilted her head to one side. Crimson eyes, the color of blood gazed up at the overcast sky.

Vast masses of clouds, Murakumo's namesake began to spiral above her. Massive beyond the scale of human imagination, these clouds extended to the horizon in every direction. The hurricane force winds pushed the trees one way then another. They bent, bowing to the power of the master of the sky, but they did not break.

Slowly, a hole opened in the center of circling winds. Widening, the moon and starry sky could be seen through tunnel of shifting cloud. She focused their power and her scrying mirror, the zenchikikan, appeared in a ripple of air. She smile as she began to dance again. In the reflection of the mirror, a young blond boy began to mirror her movements.

Flowing as she flowed, dancing as she danced, graceful, agile and deadly.

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**Shihoin Training Ground**

"Breathe in."

He spun, releasing a series of spinning kicks as he soared through the air.

"Breathe out."

His swords were a cross between a jitte and a short scimitar. The blade was a finger-length broad. It was the length of his forearm and straight along the unsharpened edge. The sharpened edge was straight for two thirds of the sword's length before it curved to a make a vicious point. The swords were designed for slashing and chopping and for that reason meshed well with his Piguaquan lessons. The wide flowing movements of the style allowed him to build up enough momentum to sever a limb with the swords. A flat, curved prong extended from the base of the blade, serving as a cross-guard and would allow him to catch or hook an opponent's weapons. A bright blue fluttering flag, embroidered with images of foxes and clouds, was tied to the crossguard.

As he twirled his swords, the polished blades reflected the shifting blue color of the flags along its length. This broke up the outline of blades resulted in giving the illusion that they disappeared from view periodically as the boy moved them about. He leapt into the air in a spin, the tips of the short dao trailing streamers of what looked like mist in a tight spiral about his body.

At the apex of his jump, he lashed out with his foot, before landing on his feet and incorporating the swords into a Tongzhigong maneuver that involved a series of sweeps and slashes performed from a crouching position. Rising quickly to his feet the mist swirled about his swords as he delivered a number of tightly packed stabs that trailed from stomach to torso on his imaginary opponent's body.

The swords disappeared into the mist, morphing in a matter of seconds. An iron chain, weighted at both ends, was slung about in his hands. He lowered his body, swung his hips and delivered a vicious thrust punch with his right hand, followed by a crippling elbow thrust with his left arm. The chain wound around the back of his neck and the five pound lead weight was slung from left to right passing through the space of what would have been an opponent's head.

Rolling his neck to shake off the chain he gave a quick front snap kick with his right leg before doing a quick hop to give a second front kick. As he jumped, he slung the weighted chain under his feet, at knee level. With a mental command the chain became a spear, then a bo that he twirled and thrust with.

The man and woman looked on in interest. One was impressed while the other seemed to be anticipating something. The woman spoke softly.

"It is impressive, but Naruto needs to see if he can decrease the time it takes to change his swords form. Wait! Is that…"

The bo in Naruto's hands had shortened to become a jo with red bands around the ends and a wider band around the middle of the short staff. Spinning the weapon in a blur she almost missed the point when the jo split into a pair of amis sticks that traced lines of fire in the air.

"Yes, Naruto's zanpakuto not only has the power to mimic the shape of other weapons but can also assume the forms and abilities of other, zanpakuto."

Seeing her incredulous stare, he quickly amended his statement.

"It's doesn't seem able to completely copy abilities and the power is definitely inferior to the original."

Looking back toward the spectacle he continued.

"My Kajikamakiri has the ability to create explosive tags on the surfaces that it touches, I can detonate those tags on command while all his does is leave a trail of fire."

Rubbing a thin hand over his scarred cheek he added.

"I also took about sixteen sparring sessions before he was even able to get that far. It's good for a distraction but he needs experience to make it more than that."

Haruka nodded before rising to walk away as the boy began to wind the practice session. She spoke to Kotengu as she started to leave.

"Naruto-kun is being transferred to the Special Forces patrol branch, he'll have plenty of opportunities there. I think that we have yet to see his full potential….If he survives"

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**Special Forces Barracks Two years later**

Naruto went over his gear for the third time. It had been ominously drilled into him both in life and death to make such pre-mission preparations a habit. After the disaster with his first class, Naruto had been gradually organizing and cataloging what he called his living memories.

Integrating a nearly complete recollection of Goken taijutsu had been one of Naruto's most recent projects. In addition, though he lacked chakra to perform ninjutsu and genjutsu the concepts behind both were applied to his shinigami training. Seals, however seemed to work with reiatsu or chakra, though the effects were either stronger or weaker than was to be expected. Sometimes seals that were familiar to him had strange and unexpected results or were not dependable.

One time Naruto had tried to expand the space within a bag using a storage seal. After several tries he had succeeded in creating a seal that seemed to work, but when he had tested it, instead of a vanished kunai and a puff of smoke, a great whirlwind had opened up and drawn in all of the air from inside of the room, then reversed itself and spat out the Shinigami Women's Society's entire collection of underwear.

Naruto had been in danger of first death by suffocation and then death by C-cup. To make matters worse he had had to rebuild the imploded tool shed he had been experimenting. Fortunately for Naruto, Kisuke-san got blamed for the panty theft. Naruto truly felt sorry for the man, but it was a desperate situation, Yoruichi had been on the warpath and Naruto had needed a patsy.

As a side note, it seemed that Urahara Groin Protector version, 2.0 needed a further upgrade to defend against hadou #91 and above.

Naruto had halted his experiments, due to the extreme danger that he might accidentally kill himself, or get some female shinigami to do the job. Because of the newly dubbed pantyhose seal he had learned that he needed to redesign the sealing system to account for the usage of reiatsu. That would take time and a lot of work on Naruto's part that he currently reserved primarily for his duties and mastering his shikai.

After awakening Mugen no Murakumo, or the Gathering Clouds of Infinity, Naruto had managed to keep Setsuna alive long enough for one of the proctors, Sakaki to find them. What no-one could explain was how the hollows had managed topenetrate the defensive perimeter unnoticed. It was generally assumed to have been a case of incompetence and the vice-captain of the fifth division Aizen Sosuke, a formal, mild-mannered man had been tasked to interview Naruto and investigate the matter. Setsuna had been infatuated with the man and Naruto felt reassured that the serious man would get to the bottom of the problem.

Naruto's remaining time at the shinigami academy had been spent mastering the generic shinigami duties such as soul konso and friendly spars and gambling with Setsuna's friends in the lower ranks. The qualification examination to gain entry into the shinigami academy was even more thorough than the graduation exam. Subjects were evaluated and chosen to be allowed entry into the academy only if it was found beyond a reason of a doubt that they had sufficient strength and latent ability to become a shinigami.

By the reckoning of the Central 46, those who were chosen to serve as the shinigami were elite and failure was not a possibility. The unspoken 'or else' was glaringly obvious to Naruto when he had heard of that declaration. As such, students in the normal shinigami curriculum could spend as much thirty-five years in the academy. Each class progressed through seven levels, each involving five years of thorough practice. Advancing not through seniority but ability, a student could either rocket through the ranks of the academy in less than seven years or take as long as seventy years to clear the school and gain official status. Some individuals did withdraw due to the difficulty but no one spoke of them.

One of Setsuna's oldest friends had been withdrawn rather than continue on with her to become a shinigami. Her hostility toward Naruto was sparked by the fact that he had occupied a position in the class that she felt was due to nepotism and truly belonged to her friend. Upon graduation Setsuna had been assigned the seventh seat in the thirteenth division.

While shinigami in the second division could hold positions within the Special Forces, the stealth corps itself did not use the Gotei 13 shinigami ranking system. Operatives were divided into five battalions that contained a certain number of companies; each company contained an equal number of platoons that carried out different tasks. The platoons were divided into squads that were sent on different missions.

Naruto had been originally assigned as a junior member of the twelfth Fast Patrol squad. His missions involved tracking and hunting elusive hollows that had evaded capture. He was also tasked with providing forward intelligence on the movements on extremely dangerous gillian and adjuca-class Menos Grande.

It was extremely dangerous work and an entire squad had been lost just days before Naruto had graduated from the academy. Due to increasing synchronization with his zanpakuto Naruto had gained a reputation for being able to cut out parts of, or completely skip the incantations of high-level level kidou, level ninety and above, still using them at near one hundred percent destructive capacity.

The Kidou corps had wanted him badly but he had been assigned to the scouting group at the insistence of the Shihoin Clan. Due to the dangerous nature of their work the turnover rate in the squad had been high and within a year of joining Naruto found himself a senior platoon commander due to his ability, and was even being farmed out to different battalions as a kidou specialist.

The mission that Naruto had currently been assigned was an example of the way that he had been moving about. He was currently part of a four person tracking and support squad that was working in tandem with a corrections squad tasked with apprehending a dangerous criminal. Wanted either Dead or alive.

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**Outskirts of Kusajishi **

Ginkotsu had been one of six officers of the third seat within the eleventh division. A vicious and dedicated fighter, his two biggest flaws as a shinigami was a boastful mouth and having a violent temper.

One day, after a particularly frustrating mission, Ginkotsu gone on a drunken binge in the Rukongai. He had complained for hours about the hollow that had been able to suppress its spiritual pressure to anyone that listened, not that anyone really believed him. After a brave but foolish villager had innocently implied that he was a liar Ginkotsu had killed seven men in a bar fight.

The feelings of his comrades on the matter were not clear but as was the norm in soul society, adjudicating such incidents were the prerogative of individual Captains. Ginkotsu would have gotten away with the murders if only he had kept his mouth shut.

During a minor altercation with some officers of the tenth division Ginkotsu had boasted at having killed the men in a bar fight. His description of the event and derisive embellishments had caused one of the tenth division officers, an idealistic young man, to draw his sword and attempt to arrest Ginkotsu.

As much as it left a bitter taste in his mouth, the fact of the matter was that within Sereitei, killing a shinigami was a much more serious crime than killing a resident of the Rukongai. Further more, the officer and his shinigami wife who had been killed by Ginkotsu were related to a senior judge in the Central 46.

Their orders were to apprehend Ginkotsu for the murder of several civilians and officers of the Gotei 13. Unofficially, a Central 46 judge wanted blood. Naruto's team were tasked with tracking and restraining Ginkotsu until the corrections squad arrived to take him back to Sereitei from where ever in the outer regions that he had hidden.

Normally it would have been a nightmarish task to find a reportedly lieutenant-class shinigami in the outer wilds of Kusajishi but a tip had come in from on of the clans that inhabited the area. Ginkotsu was hiding out in one of the abandoned villages in the outer wilds and Naruto's team was dispatched to find him.

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They moved lightly, silently as befitted their profession. The repressed their spiritual pressure to avoid detection by a possibly dangerous opponent. Officers of the eleventh division were known for their prowess in battle and took pride in that fact.

The members of the Special Forces took pride in the fact that they could end a fight before it became a battle. All they needed to defeat an opponent was a single, well placed blow. Against their stealth Ginkotsu had no warning, against their pursuit Ginkotsu had nowhere to run or hide. He would fight, and they would probably have to kill him if they couldn't subdue him within the first few seconds.

A large hulking figure, more than seven feet tall bowed as he bent down to clear the doorway of the abandoned house he had been sleeping in. A single large zanpakuto was held in huge scarred hands. The left sleeve of his haori had been ripped off at the shoulder and banded cords of muscle and sinew moved under his heavily tanned and scarred skin.

A broad hairy chest could be seen in the moonlight inhaling the cold air. A misted breath escaped thick lips as the man turned toward some bushes.

Four pairs of eyes watched as the man began to urinate in the bushes. At a silent gesture from Naruto the positioned themselves and began to count down. Mugen chanted within him.

_3_

"**Disintegrate Rondaninni's black dog!"**

_2_

"**Read, burn and tear out your own throat!!"**

_1_

"Bakudou # 4: Hainawa!"

A snaking rope of energy flashed out and bound Ginkotsu's arms to his sides, restraining him. Simultaneously three dark figures flash-stepped behind and to either side of the large man. Two of the blades were already in motion, their orders were to hobble the man by cuttind the tendons in the arms and legs. In the event that something went wrong the third was to decapitate Ginkotsu instantly. The trapped man gave a roar of rage as the swung blades began to bite into flesh.

"Bakuhatsu! Kurokabuto!"

There was a thunderous explosion and the two men closest to Ginkotsu were ripped apart by a shockwave of air. Naruto abandoned his positioned and was barely able to use shunpo to rescue his surviving female teammate. Laying the injured and unconscious woman down beneath a pile of rubble in a ruined house three streets down Naruto quickly left to act as a diversion.

As he crept along a wall he silently wondered about the true extent of Ginkotsu's abilities and prayed for his teammates survival.

"_The eleventh never mentioned that he could use such large scale explosions so close to his body." _

In his attempt to rescue his comrade Naruto had been grazed by the dissipating shockwave as was evidenced by the sharp, shifting pain that indicated a broken rib. As he paused to bind his chest a sneering voice spoke.

"Here's the little mouse. Bakuha!"

The wall behind Naruto exploded. He had tumbled out of the way but a flying piece of rock struck him in the chest again. Naruto's released his swords with a gasped incantation.

"As the uzumaki gathers together wind and wave, so do they disperse; from form to formless from finite to infinite, Mugen no Murakumo!"

Naruto threw a butterfly sword to curtail Ginkotsu's forward charge. The scarf that was held in Naruto's left hand morphed into a chain and the blade transformed mid-flight into a heavy weight. The chain wound around a tree branch behind and around Ginkotsu before the swinging weight came back toward Ginkotsu from his right and wrapped around his neck several times before slamming into his temple.

Bleeding, Naruto ruthlessly hauled backward on the chain enhancing his strength with reiatsu to lift the giant man off of his feet and hang him from the tree. Blood flow from Ginkotsu's face and neck as his fingers desperately scratched at the chain trying to find purchase.

"_This piece of shit killed my comrades!"_

Naruto's voice was harsh as he spoke.

"Ibara!"

Along the length of the chain on each link three hooked one inch blades extended outward. They cut into Ginkotsu's neck and slowly began to tear through his flesh toward his jugular as Naruto tightened the chain. Ginkotsu's fingers caught on the sharp hooks.

A weak voice choked out.

"Baku…ha."

The chain was snapped by the explosion and Naruto flash-stepped backward toward the roof of a nearby building, leading the fight away from where he had left his teammate. A dark shadow loomed above him.

"Bakuhatsu!"

Ginkotsu was enraged and taking no chances. After the boy's head had erupted a spray of blood when his spiked kanabo had struck it he activated a full power blast, intending to fully obliterate his body. At the last second he noticed the blood on his face turned to water and the body began to waver before exploding in scalding steam.

The force of the two concurrent explosions caved in the roof of the house and caused the building to collapse. A soft black boots lightly touched down on the street in front of the building. A dark figure wearing a black bandana over his bright blond hair looked at the shifting dust and rubble with intense blue eyes.

Naruto had designed that move from his memories of kage bunshin, water clones and exploding clones. By using Utsusemi Naruto created an afterimage of himself that he then filled with Mugen no Murakumo's mist and extremely compressed reiatsu making a human shaped bubble of energy that burst explosively. He wondered if it was enough to finish the man.

Naruto's answer came in the form of a spinning kanabo that was thrown from within the ruined house. Naruto's restored butterfly swords were unable to deflect the full of the blow and one of the sword blades snapped. Ginkotsu flash-stepped before the off-balanced boy and delivered a crushing blow with his fist, punching Naruto through a wall surrounding a large yard.

"How was that, boy!" The bleeding man roared, "You surprised me but the shinigami shouldn't send inexperienced brats to do a man's job!"

Pointing at Naruto's broken shikai he triumphantly stated, "It looks like I fucked you up badly enough to destroy that puny sword."

Swinging his iron staff onto his shoulder Ginkotsu watched in amusement as a groaning Naruto struggled to his feet, and failing to stand, fell to his knees.

Naruto spoke with a gasping voice.

"I already knew that my sword was too brittle to block that oversized cudgel of yours. The wind and water that composed my zanpakuto's form is too easily dispersed by such densely packed spiritual power. I haven't yet mastered the ability to condense the power densely and still retain the shape-shifting abilities of my blade."

Looking Ginkotsu in the eye he spoke again.

"However, the fluid nature of my blade allows me to infinitely sharpen my weapon by cycling the energy as it passes through my blade like a high frequency chainsaw. That is why I never once tried to block your attacks with the flat of my blade,"

A chip of metal fell from Kurokabuto revealing the fact that there was a wide slash mark on the body of the weapon.

Naruto smirked at Ginkotsu's outrage.

"In this situation I simply gather together the wind and water in the atmosphere and cut through everything!"

Using hoho to gather reiatsu into his legs Naruto used shunpo to perform a leaping attack from a seated position, taking Ginkotsu by surprise. His broken blades merged together to form a meter long jian that trailed mist from its tip.

Surprised Ginkotsu brought up his kanabo to defend against the attack. Mugen no Murakumo's reformed blade bit into the opposing zanpakuto and **sliced through**. The path of the blade continued on through Ginkotsu's left arm severed it. A scythe of wind and water curved away in counter-rotation to the arc of Naruto's sword.

As the sword swung from left to right, the sickle turned from right to left, incident to the arc of his blade. The blade of wind spiraled about Ginkotsu, severing his right arm before chopping his body in half.

"**Kiri"**

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**AN: I read the reviews and was gratified to see so many people had interesting things to say. There was a bit of place and time skipping here though, I added place and time tags to minimize confusion.**


	9. Chapter 9

**His life has come to an end yet he continues on surpassing death itself. Taken in by a noble clan what destiny lies before him? Unknowing of his fate he continues on to a destined meeting. Naruto's fate as a member of the Shihoin Clan hangs in the balance! His greatest bane is now his ally?! A mystery looms about Naruto. Just what has he forgotten? And having remembered he proceeds into an uncertain future. Steeped in darkness what bloody path does he walk. And where he goes the winged lord soars.**

**I do not own or profit from the anime/manga Naruto or Bleach. This story is just for fun.**

"Speaking"

"_Thinking"_

"**Kyuubi to naruto"**

"_**Mugen to naruto"**_

**Hollow speak**

**Kiri,**

**The parting of ways**

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**The Nakano Shrine, Another Universe 200 years ago **

"_Hate me."_

"_Detest me"_

"_And like a bug, survive in an unsightly manner!"_

A boy stood beneath a temple floor. Before him was a shrine emblazoned with the Uchiha crest and the image of a raven, wings outspread.

Upon an altar, below the shrine lay a scroll.

Numb, trembling slightly, whether from rage or fear or grief or some combination of the three cannot be said. This was what he had come here for, the answer to his most burning question.

"_Why?"_

_**You who would walk the blood red path,**_

_**Rid thyself of all restraints.**_

_**Abandon all bonds that would chain thy heart.**_

_**The blood of kin shall be the price, **_

_**The Glorious Light! The Power Supreme!**_

_**The Eye that gazes upon the humbled dominion,**_

_**Of Man, Demon and God! **_

"_Why?"_

"_**Power**__, all this for power!"_

He began to chuckle darkly; his voice was harsh from the screams ripped from his throat the night before. His eyes were in shadow, never once revealing the pain, the suffering, and worst of all, the strange mix of longing and rage that shamed him and burned him and would not let go even as dark spots began to cloud his vision.

"Hn! So that's how it is, Nii-san."

The guttering candles went out, engulfing the room, and the boy, in darkness. It was a sign of things to come.

For Uchiha Sasuke, long before he betrayed his homeland or even met his first true friends, this was the true parting of the ways.

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Aaaaaahhhh, man he'd always sucked at math, what was it again? He'd lost count. Let's see, he'd force fed long-haired, girly Pein to grotesquely fat swallow you whole Pein. Then he'd shoved that Pein's head so far up his own butt that there was a football sized lump in the guy's stomach. Well, that was an exaggeration, he had tried to shove the man's head up his own ass but found that it was anatomically impossible, not without snapping his spine in three places to get the right amount of curvature, and crushing the head to get everything to fit and by then the screaming had already stopped so he had abandoned the effort as a lost cause.

He'd managed to send No-neck Pein into orbit though, guess that meant Ultimate Fuuton Oodama-Rasengan Magen Shuriken was a success. He hadn't looked as he tagged Jiraiya-Pein with a personally modified flesh-eating, soul-binding seal that was capable of surpassing even his own demon-granted regeneration.

He'd chased down a Pein that was making a run for it, ripped off the man's arms and legs as easily as pinning a butterfly, with lots more screaming, and dipped the remainder into a two hundred foot diameter pool of molten slag that he had created. The smell of cooking human flesh wasn't actually that bad, smelled like sausages, maybe that's what people found horrifying about the smell of burning human flesh, it made you hungry. Speaking of sausages, he really needed to remember to eat before a big fight, he was really beginning to consider that burning leg.

Hmm, where was he, ah! There was the girl with the swirling paper shiki that used an ingenious combination of genjutsu, shunshin, and what he recognized as Jiraiya's fighting routines. He'd summoned a toad in mid-air and used Katon: Gamayu-endan to flash fry most of those shiki from a distance as he'd nearly been tagged with a chakra suppressing seal borne by one of the shiki.

Their fight had the potential to go on longer but she'd taken a hit from one of the giant wind blades that were meant for the Pein that she had called Yahiko.

Yeah, now that fight had been a doozy, Sasuke seemed to have found a way to call down lightening from the sky. So not to be outdone he had created an artificial low-pressure system below the gathering storm-clouds and summoned a tornado right into the palm of his hand. It was hard to control and noisy as hell but he had really enjoyed the fearful expression on Pein's face when he turned the thing on its side and had sucked the Hidden Rain missing-nin and self-proclaimed god down the humongous funnel right into a Fuuton Oodama Rasengan. The storm winds from the dissipating technique had launched the man half a mile away through a mountain, disrupting the various battles being fought in the area, ending some and probably drastically altering the landscape.

He had learned from experience not to take things for granted so he now stood over the dying man wondering whether he had killed five Peins or six. The Anbu forces that hadn't been brought to this battle were, along with Maito Gai and several high-ranking Jounin, in Hidden Rain assisting the Anti-Pein forces in destroying the man's hidden ritual chamber.

Tsunade, Kakashi and a heavily puffing Tenzo appeared behind him as the broken man at his feet asked a question.

"Why don't you finish me?"

Sheepishly scratching the back of his head he answered.

"Ehheh, sorry 'bout that, I lost count for a second there."

Not having time to rant about the fact that only way to change the world was to make people know the pain of despair, Pein's final thoughts as his neck was crushed under Naruto's heel were of how ironic it was to be killed by someone who couldn't count past five. What can we say, Naruto was just that cool.

Leaving the man to bleed to death Naruto left Tsunade and the others as witnesses, they had been the only fellow ninja beside Maito Gai that ciuld still keep up with him and even they seemed tired. Their role in the fight was to ensure that Naruto had fought no more than four opponents at a time and it had been dangerous work though Tsunade still seemed good to go.

Unfortunately, for the next fight he was actually going to have to stop holding back. Naruto closed his eyes and prayed that time had, just a little, closed the ever present gap that seemed to always exist between him and his closest friend.

A strange mythical beast of lightning flashed to earth in an instant, striking the ground with a great and thunderous roar. He turned his back on a dying god and went on to a real battle. It really bothered him though.

"_Six or five, I just can't remember?"_

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**Special Forces Barracks Present**

Kiri or properly named Kirikaze, the parting wind, was a spiraling blade of highly compressed, wind, water and an enormous amount of reiatsu. The wavering quality of the blade was due to it's extremely subtle edge and made predicting it's path extremely difficult. Naruto had found that both the wide cutting edge and the fine points on the sickle shaped blades could be used to either chop or impale an opponent. The technique even left deep marks on spirit-repelling stone.

Walking along a darkened corridor Naruto pondered his training until this point.

Guufuu Kirikaze, or the tornado parting wind, released multiple wind and water sickles that spiraled about a target and cut it to pieces. It was the only Kirikaze that could be thrown as a distance attack.

The Shihoin clan had been good to him but until this point his teachers had decided everything about his life. Those who held the Shihoin name were expected to uphold a standard of skill that was befitting a member of one of the noble clans.

Even though Naruto could have passed the graduation test with his eyes closed on his first day there were some things that could not be accomplished without the interaction with others at the academy. He may not have the renown of a genius that graduated in the space of a year but the difference between Naruto and such prodigies was the experience imparted by more than one hundred years of training.

Neji Kirikaze or the spiral parting wind was executed with a stabbing motion creating a corkscrew blade of energy that ripped through its victims. Naruto had found this attack particularly useful when destroying hollow masks.

Kirishuuha or the parting wave, were more powerful, but less precise long distance kirikaze attacks. Naruto had experimented extensively with his attacks and was always searching for new ways to use them. Combined with shape-shifting abilities of his Mugen Naruto found himself opening up an entire world of combat that wasn't necessarily limited to bladed weapons. He had even tried to replicate something that he had witnessed Shiba Kaien do in a fight.

Among the shinigami of his division Naruto's Shikai was quickly gaining a reputation for being the most versatile combat type. His single-handed defeat of the criminal Ginkotsu and the manner in which he had done it had earned him a promotion to the head of the Special Forces Patrol and Reconnaissance brigade under Yoruichi. His training with Kotengu had been reduced to a few friendly spars as the real test of his abilities outside of missions became the Special Forces training yard where in the space of one year he had finally succeeded in achieving something that took most other shinigami at least ten years to perfect. Mugen no Murakumo's final form.

Walking into the training yard Naruto tried to banish those thoughts from his mind and wondered about what he'd do now that he was forced to spend at least part of his day in Yoruichi's prescence. The two people didn't hate each other but there was a certain spirit of competitiveness that the girl always seemed to engender in him. Though she was technically one hundred and sixty years his senior, Yoruichi was always the instigator in these bouts.

As it was, besting her at shunpo was and would always remain his most fervent goal.

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**Special Forces Training Ground**

The other people arranged themselves about the newcomer. This was supposed to be a free-for-all sparring match but experience had shown that the new head of the patrol brigade was the person to beat. The one in question stood tall among their ranks. Naruto had grown to an impressive six feet and stood tall and wiry among his comrades. He was dressed in a black hakama, tied off from the bottom of his knees to the soles of his zori-clad feet. His muscular torso was covered only by a blue scarf wrapped about his mid-section and a glowing green jewel upon his neck. A five feet long nodachi was tucked between the wrappings around his stomach at his back.

Fingerless black combat gloves shifted as his hands clenched into fists. The fight began.

Two men attacked from just out of his peripheral vision, careful to muffle their steps and keeping their shadows out of view. They risked using shunpo to close quickly enough to land an attack but it was to no avail. Without relying on shunpo, he focused his senses and called to the power within him.

Mugen answered. He began to experience a curious echoing sensation due to sharing his senses with the former demon fox. Air wafted gently against the back of his left ear and his left hand shot out as he widened his stance and gathered reiatsu to his feet. Gripping the first assailant's arm he spun clockwise, drawing the opponents arm across his centerline and wrenching the man of balance. Using his hip as a pivot he tossed the first man through the air even as he adjusted his balance and used his momentum to deliver a punishing spinning back kick to the second attacker, following in the shadow of the first.

Seeking to take advantage of his precarious stance one of the women tried to attack him using a sliding tackle. Naruto fluidly evaded using a cartwheel that turned into a tumble before initiating a sweeping attack on another rushing opponent. Lowering his stance, he evaded a blow to the back of the head while simultaneously unleashing a powerful Bajiquan thrust punch that knocked the woman before him off her feet. Using a spinning back elbow he parried a snap kick to the head before rushing inside of the man's guard and delivering a debilitating Piguaquan chop to the left of his oponent's neck even as Naruto's left hand gripped the man's right sleeve and pulling him off balance tossed his opponent under the feet of onrushing attackers.

Gathering reiatsu to his limbs Naruto dashed forward in a low crouch before launching into a flying, spinning kick that nailed the three before him in the face just as they hopped over the man thrown at their feet. Forming platforms of reiatsu in the air Naruto started what seemed to observers to be a series of six spinning kicks into the crowd of fighters that began to surround him.

A graceful female form tackled him out of the air but Naruto broke the girl's hold on him before twisting in mid-air and leveraging his legs between their bodies. Kicking out with both feet, the girl gave a pained grunt as she slammed into the floor, short dark hair spilling from under her head covering. She was quickly accosted by one of the more opportunistic trainees.

"_That kid's someone to watch in a few years."_

Flipping through the air and landing on his feet Naruto found that an opponent had grasped each of his arms while a third chambered a punch. Dropping his center of gravity quickly Naruto allowed the men who were holding him to pull him back up. This time, not resisting the motion, Naruto jumped into the air, bringing his legs up and kicking to his right side. This approach deflected the punch and allowed Naruto to slam both feet into the left side of the head of one of the men holding him.

As the man collapsed unconscious, Naruto tightly gripped the other man's hand as his body somersaulted over the man's head and used the full force of his body weight and physical strength and leverage to dislocate the man's arm and toss him bodily overhead. Relying on the half-remembered Goken Taijutsu again, Naruto spun and in quick succession swept his remaining opponent off his feet, kicked him up in the air from below in the back, before straightening and delivering a Piguaquan chop to the falling man's midsection.

It seemed that the other girl's fight had become more heated than was warranted and Naruto was about to intervene when Yoruichi stepped in, she literally stepped in the face of one of the fighters before flipping off of it like a springboard, gripping one man's neck with her lower legs as she rabbit-punched another man. Using her body weight and impressive leg strength she tossed to last of the overheated fighters through the air before kicking aside the other girl and landing on her feet.

Amber eyes looked off to the side and perhaps from Soifon's perspective Yoruichi's silhouette may have seemed incredibly cool. However, from Naruto's point of view the challenging golden eyes were just annoying.

"_Show-off."_ He mouthed.

"_True."_ She shrugged.

His annoyance at the fallen girl's blatant hero worship and Yoruichi's flashy entrance faded at the older girl's expression. He sobered completely at what she said next.

"Shihoin Naruto! I have a mission for you!"

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**Mortal World Forested Jungle One year later**

Chestnut-brown eyes gazed upon the smiling boy, expressionless.

"You never cease to amaze me."

The boy rubs the back of his head sheepishly as his smile remained fixed upon his face.

"Ara, ara, Aizen-dono, keep it up and 'cha gonna make me blush!"

Aizen smiles benignly upon the boy as he asked one final time.

"Are you certain you have no problem with this?"

Around the two are the bodies of several Special Forces officers, their eyes dead to the world, exposing their final moments to be filled with fear and confusion. Three of the bodies were dismembered completely into five neat piles of limbs, the only marking to betray the manner of death for the other five were a single bloody wound at the soul-sleep.

The grey haired boy grinned toothily and tilted his read in a questioning manner.

"Why should I have a problem with trash?"

Aizen watched the boy intently, a soft smile on his face.

"Well said, let us leave the experiment in peace."

With a muttered word and gesture Aizen turned and left, Ichimaru Gin stayed just long enough to watch the shadows creep hungrily toward the bodies with an unreadable expression.

"I'm sorry...**not!**"

Then he followed after Aizen, chuckling to himself.

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**Mortal World Forested Jungle**

He dashed through the forests that reminded him nostalgically of his home so far away. Leaping from tree to tree he glided through the air with a grace that belied the urgency of the mission. According to Yoruichi two of his teams had just gone missing after reporting an unusual disturbance in this sector, the third such occurrence over a period of three years.

They had stayed twenty hours over the approved time limit for communication blackout and their locators weren't working. The situation looked bad but was too ambiguous to risk sending another team into potential danger. Naruto believed that Yoruichi had some inkling of his true ability from reviewing what was and wasn't in his mission reports. Two hundred missions, roughly hundred of them turning out to be life or death struggles and he had returned without a scratch.

Yoruichi must have been hoping for a similar miracle as she hadn't sent him any back-up but had left a shadow team at the Gate in order to quickly alert Sereitei if he had met an opponent that he couldn't escape.

Movement to his left drew his attention to a crowd of hollows feasting on something in the distance. He changed directions and was among them in seconds.

"Hadou #54: Haien!"

Abolishing flames of violet fire incinerated the largest group of hollows leaving nothing behind. Drawing a kodachi Naruto swiftly defeated the hollows that didn't immediately run to Heuco Mundo. When he was finished what he saw sickened him. Lying in a large pool of blood was the half eaten arm of a shinigami.

**((How strong are you, shinigami?))**

Naruto turned to face the voice of the hollow that spoke to him, eyes filled with outrage, soon widened in surprise.

"Adjuca!"

**((I wish to test my power, shinigami, the power that I have gained))**

Thinking furiously he triggered the warning signal to let the shadow team know that he needed help.

"Did you kill these shinigami?"

**((I wonder, I rarely remember weaklings))**

A pincer-like claw reached out of the darkness dropping a new quartet of bodies unto the forest floor.

**((There will be no help coming, shinigami)) **

The wind began to pick up as storm clouds gathered above the rainforest. Thunder covered the sound of static as a vaguely humanoid figure with the claws and insectoid armor of a scorpion appeared behind him. Silver light flashed as a blade-like claw ripped through Naruto's body which promptly exploded.

"Hadou #63 Souren Sokatsu!"

Blue fire blossomed like a terrible flower, engulfing the hollow in its entirety, but to no effect.

**((What a strange technique; shinigami are you strong?))**

His answer was silence as Naruto seemed to ignore his question in favor of taking in the sight of the bodies of his dead comrades, people that he had trained with for years. With a sigh he looked up at the overcast sky with a sad smile.

The adjuca's eyes narrowed behind his mask and spoke with a tone of barely controlled rage.

**((Then witness my strength, shinigami!))**

A deep crack opened up in the adjuca's mask and darkness seeped from it. The quality of its spiritual power seemed to increase in both strength and ferocity. The directions that its knees were bent changed so that it was standing as a human would. The upper third of the hollow's mask had crumbled away and the beings body stood taller, leaner and fiercer.

Naruto didn't do or say anything but raise an eyebrow as he looked up at the overcast sky but the question he asked seemed to carry a deadly tone that chilled even the mist laden air and shook the newly formed arrancar to its bones.

"You did this, to test your **power**?"

Unsettled the arrancar raised its claws and a long, armor clad tail struck out at Naruto from behind, extending a great distance from the earth from which it had burrowed out of. The bladed tip pierced the vertebrae at the back of Naruto's neck and the arancar grinned in satisfaction.

Until a foot came crashing down on its head in an axe kick that was powerful enough to bury its head in the ground. Gripping the base of the creatures tail Naruto's hand glowed with blue fire.

"Hadou # 33: Sokatsu!"

Roaring in pain the creature tossed Naruto of its back and aiming its claws at him charged and fired a cero from each claw and its mouth.

**((Tres cero!))**

The mist about Naruto swirled and thickened instead of being dissipated by the blast. An ephemeral wall of vapor met the triple blast head on and encompassed the orbs of energy. The blast faded completely without touching Naruto.

**((Wha… How! Shinigami!!))**

Naruto shook his head dismissively, "Explaining it to someone like you would be a waste of time; this is my bankai."

The arrancar wanted to run for Hueco Mundo but a sudden fear gripped him. There was a menacing presence emanating from the man before him, a darkness that curled and flickered about him, only seen through the way that the mist reacted to it. At every turn images of death and destruction assaulted the arrancar from all sides. It saw itself being ripped to pieces, slashed and chopped apart by spiraling blades of wind, incinerated by searing fire and devoured in the maw of a great spectral fox!

_"This mist was a bankai?...No!"_

The hollow shook as it slowly gazed at the sky and saw the eye of the titanic hurricane the floated above. The hollow felt the fear that had always existed deep within its being well up to the surface. Only one other being had made it feel this way that Aiz…

**((What… are you! Shini..gami))**

The question was prompted by the deep red glow that seemed to emanate from the pupils of Naruto's ice blue eyes. The effect was made more terrifying by the play of lightening within the clouds. The light cast his face in stark shadows as the oppressive feeling in the air weighed down heavily on the forest.

"Your **executioner!**"

What happened next could not be followed with the naked eye. Any eye that could have tracked the movement of the flash of extremely compressed spiritual power that had destabilized the atmosphere would have been instantly blinded by the incandescent glow of the attack.

Winding down from the sky, an iridescent trail of ozone and plasma sketched the form of a sinuous Chinese dragon trailing down, wings outstretched towards the cratered pit where the arrancar had stood. Of the creature, there remained nothing but scattered spiritrons.

"Tenkuu-Uoh, Mugen no Murakumo first attack…"

"**Kirin!**"

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"Aaachaaa! That was pretty one-sided!" The boy exclaimed, "Aizen-dono was that guy too strong or was the arrancar too weak?"

The man in question rubbed his eyes before putting his glasses back on.

"A combination of the two I should think." He replied, unfazed by the destruction before him. For three hundred meters in every direction, trees had been toppled over by the shockwave and the echoes of the attack's thunderclap lingered on the air. Small fires illuminated the darkened forest below.

"_Tenkuu-Uoh Mugen no Murakumo, the Winged Lord of the Sky of Billowing Clouds... Flashy." _

"Let us go, Gin, before anyone becomes suspicious."

"Hai!"

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**AN: At some time in the future I'll be reworking the first three chapters slightly. The story won't change but I'll try to add some things that would make it an easier read. I've dropped hints through out the story including this one but I'll come out and just say it. Naruto crossed dimensions when he died, passing through the valley of screams which has been stated to exist between the mortal and spiritual realms. I'll keep in mind the advice given on how to improve the story by some reviewers.**

**TTFN.**


	10. Chapter 10

**His life has come to an end yet he continues on surpassing death itself. Taken in by a noble clan what destiny lies before him? Unknowing of his fate he continues on to a destined meeting. Naruto's fate as a member of the Shihoin Clan hangs in the balance! His greatest bane is now his ally?! A mystery looms about Naruto. Just what has he forgotten? And having remembered he proceeds into an uncertain future. Steeped in darkness what bloody path does he walk. And where he goes the winged lord soars. Onward, upward to where the shinigami demon cat awaits.**

**I do not own or profit from the anime/manga Naruto or Bleach. This story is just for fun.**

"Speaking"

"_Thinking"_

"**Kyuubi to naruto"**

"_**Mugen to naruto"**_

**((Hollow speak))**

**Kirin**

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**Sereitei**

The fox lay curled upon the grass. Errant wisps of rust brown fur glowed golden yellow in the sunlight streaming from between a break in the canopy. The wind rustled its fur and whiskers. A single black-tipped tail covered the end of its muzzle. It lay with one eye firmly closed into a slit but its left eye was narrowly open. A blue iris, dark enough to be mistaken for being brown, gazed out at the world from upon the forested ledge.

In the distance, surrounded by lush forest and chirping birds, was a large house of incredibly odd construction. While the base of the house was of fairly traditional architecture two statues of well muscled arms extended from either side of the building and in the backyard there was a platform that contained what looked like a three story tall black cylindrical chimney. A vague memory of seeing the chimney-like building as part of a fire works display flitted across the creature's mind and was soon lost with a feeling of sad despair and the recollection of a burning effigy of a certain demon fox.

The creature gave no voice to any thoughts that it may have had but simply made a sound that seemed to be midway between a sneeze and a huff. Its tail shook free as a new gust of wind cooled the humid and hot air of the mid-day sun. A single dark eye looked lazily on as a beetle struggled to surmount the new obstruction to its path that the fox's tail represented. Slowly, slowly its eye fell closed.

A few minutes later a sleek black cat ambled jauntily into the clearing from a trail between the trees that followed a winding path down to the house in the forest below. Amber eyes reflected light and seemed to glow in the shadows of the trees. Making her way to the slumbering fox the black cat looked down upon him with an inscrutable look. Tentatively, it lowered itself unto its belly and resting its chin upon its forepaws began to stare at the fox's quivering whiskers.

Feline eyes roamed with apparent approval over the other animal's lean but muscular frame. The cat's eyes took in the beetle searching for a way off the fox's tail and the gentle rhythmic pattern of breathing.

Seeming to come to a decision the feline fluidly stretched as it stood and slowly, warily advanced. The beetle frantically scrambled off of the fox and flew away spiraling upwards toward the sky above. Gently the cat lowered its face toward the head of the sleeping fox and parting its mouth slightly, the black cat licked the muzzle of the reynard.

The fox continued sleeping as the black cat watched him intensely. Slowly she lifted her right paw. The black-furred limb gently hovered above the fox's muzzle. Their figures were covered in the shadows of the trees that swayed in the passing wind.

Her paw made a gentle motion toward the fox before rearing back and in a flash of unsheathed claws scratched the fox's muzzle.

"Gyaaahhh!!"

With a puff of smoke and a startled, outraged yell, Shihoin Naruto appeared in the place where the fox had lain. Rubbing the faint, pink claw marks that adorned the bridge of his nose he looked down at the cat before him with a vexed expression.

"What the hell was that for?!"

Not answering the boy's question, the amber eyes flickered to the modified shinigami uniform worn by her counterpart. He wore a keikogi with the sleeves cut away to expose muscular shoulders. From the middle of the ribcage downward, wiry cords of muscle were covered by black bandages. His hakama was loose about his thighs to help conceal throwing weapons, while black bandages tightened the material snugly against the calf and shin of his lower legs and soft booted feet. Black bandages supported the lower arm and hands, one of which rested on his nodachi, covered in a blue scarf, that lay next to him.

In an old man's voice the cat commented.

"I see that you've mastered the beast transformation skill. You even managed to keep your clothes on."

"Unlike you, right?" Naruto grinned cheekily, "Just can't keep your pants on can ya?"

He was surprised and flustered when the cat puffed into smoke and Yoruichi's voice spoke from within the sudden cloud.

"What you really want to know is where I keep my zanpakuto right, Noodle-kun?"

"_Right!"_ he silently agreed.

Outwardly though, Naruto sputtered as he tried to deny her accusation and fire a comeback at the same time. Feminine laughter deepened until the smoke cleared to reveal Yoruichi's black cat form which leapt away through the trees, cackling. Naruto blushed red as he stared after her contemplatively. Gathering himself, he transformed back into a fox and followed after her.

"_Hmm, where does she hide her zanpakuto? Hope it chafes!"_

The beast transformation skill was a special ability taught to those Shihoin Clan members with a strong will and excellent control governing their reiatsu. As one's form in the spiritual world was largely related to ones spiritual power and self-perception the transformation skill was taught as a way to disguise oneself to hide from hollows. It was a more complex form of spiritual manipulation.

Having no chakra, Naruto had failed to see a way to utilize the henge skill into his repertoire of shinigami abilities. With meditation, aid from Mugen no Murakumo and surprisingly enough, the often busy Yoruichi, Naruto had mastered the transformation skill and was continuing to experiment.

Yoruichi's aid hadn't come cheap however. The lazy woman always left as much paperwork as she could to her subordinates and foisted off her share to another officer whenever she could get away with. This left time for Yoruichi's four biggest past times, beating down Kisuke, Yoruichi called it sparring; going on missions so dangerous it gave her underlings apoplectic fits, Kuchiki-baiting, and most importantly of all; sleeping on the job. Naruto's price for receiving training was to take care of a two year backlog of mission reports. That didn't however include what Naruto had endured just to get Yoruichi to consider teaching him.

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**Three Days Earlier**

It wasn't his fault. It _was not __**his **_fault. He had been minding his own business in the Fractured Room when out of the blue Yoruichi flash-stepped unto a branch behind him. The trailing laughter that struggled to keep up with her speed and her Cheshire Cat grin boded trouble for someone and that someone was not gonna be hi…

At that moment someone slammed into him. He wanted that in the record. A figure with shoulder length black and a lithe silhouette flash-stepped into him sending Naruto tumbling to the ground. To make matters worse, the person who was wearing a version of the shinigami academy uniform was standing on his head. No, the **other** head!

Seemingly ignoring the writhing Naruto the person stomping on his privates complained loudly to Yoruichi in what sounded like a child's voice beginning to settle into a man's pitch but could have been a low-pitched girl's voice.

"Cat Demon! Thou shalt feel the full fervor of my wrath!"

Yoruichi merely looked amused and waved something in her right hand as she yanked down on her left lower eyelid and blew a raspberry. Incensed, the kid gave a short growl of frustration and Naruto wheezed as a bare foot stomped on him, again!

"Very well then! You have seeded the wind now reap –ack!"

At the point when the person standing on Naruto had stomped her or his foot down at the word reap for emphasis Naruto had decided that he had well and truly had enough. It seemed that Yoruichi's victim had not even noticed Naruto and gave a startled squeak when the 'mound' shifted underfoot. Naruto would have recognized and been duly impressed by the show of excellent balance that allowed the boyish figure to land feet first. Unfortunately, for many people Naruto was currently going over his mind for a list of mean things to do to this person when he had the chance.

Rolling to his feet and Naruto grabbed the guy's keikogi by the front so violently that dark-hair tumbled forward obscuring the person's face. Naruto snarled even as cool eyes looked at him in disdain that quickly froze into a vexed expression at the blond's words.

"Watch where you're going you flat-chested bitch!"

Without a change in expression Kuchiki Byakuya swung his bokken around in an arc aimed for Naruto's neck. With a shimmering of the air, Naruto vanished from Byakuya's sight. Byakuya then continued the arc of the blow as he performed the move, flawlessly, tracing a perfect circle in the air with the tip of his bokken. Suppressing Naruto's attack, or so he thought, Byakuya landed in his original position as he looked out for Naruto's next attack. Only Yoruichi from her perch in the trees saw Naruto crouching behind Byakuya with his hands strangely positioned. Everyone in the clearing soon heard him.

"Taijutsu Ougi: Sennen Goroshi!!"

'Wha-gyaaaahaaahhh!!"

Yoruichi went slack-jawed as Naruto Delivered a truly prodigious super ass-poke that carried enough force behind it that Naruto's feet dug into the earth and Byakuya was flung into the air, blushing and cursing in shock and pain. Yoruichi laughed so hard she fell out of her tree.

Byakuya on the other hand engaged them both in hand to hand combat as soon as the ass-pain faded. Whirling, snarling, the boy used shunpo to get behind Naruto for a decapitating strike. Naruto was already moving away and behind Byakuya when Yoruichi tried to trip him up so that Byakuya could hit him.

Retaliating, he dodged in a manner which, like the Kuchiki's arrival, would take him into a collision path with the Shihoin princess. Yoruichi landed a kick on his sternum but they were forced to break apart as Byakuya, tears of pain in his eyes attacked them both with equal vigor.

Byakuya restrained himself and began to focus. The skill of shunpo being used here was at the level of a captain at least. Gathering his strength, he struggled to keep up with his childhood tormentor. His skill with the technique was above average but if he wanted to keep up with Yoruichi he needed something more.

His form blurred as it wound around trees, bushes and branches in a twisting, knotted path. The afterimages that he left behind faded quickly as they formed a serpentine trail behind him. There! They were in sight, Naruto and Yoruichi battling high in the air.

For her part, Yoruichi was pleased, she was stunned, amused and most of all impressed. At this point only those approaching captain-level like Urahara Kisuke could keep up with her. Naruto was using his zanpakuto as a jo or short staff, extending his reach and allowing him more leverage. She had tried separating him from the soul slayer but had given up the task after the second time that he had summoned it to his hand.

As the situation stood little by little, in both power and ability, Naruto was growing, even as he was fighting her and the prospect was exciting. Yoruichi attempted a high kick that was blocked and followed her high kick with a flurry of punches and jabs that were turned aside or answered. She was giving far more than she got, but he was standing up well to the punishment.

Naruto channeled reiatsu into his fists and used hoho to reduce wind resistance on his arms and launched a precision nerve strike that on any other opponent that he had fought would have worked. Yoruichi used hanki to negate the attack and very nearly used the same attack on **him**. Fortunately, Kuchiki Byakuya caught up with them and with a chantthat went unheard, a **stream of lightening** flashed out toward them, shattering trees into superheated gas and wood chips.

Yoruichi spiraled away into the sky with Naruto close behind. They had used shunpo to travel diagonally through three-dimensional space from one corner of the Fractured Room to another, nearly seven miles away. Byakuya was still frantically searching for them. She had intended to turn this into a training session for little Byakuya but this fight presented an opportunity for her to evaluate her subordinate's skills at her leisure. Little by little she began to increase the speed of her movement feeding more and more power into her limbs and watching Naruto try to keep up.

So far he had managed to keep up with her and little by little was pushing past his previous limits, perhaps without even noticing if his look of extreme concentration was any indication. A heel kick aimed at her shoulder, missed and struck the ground instead, it completely shattered the earth, creating a twenty foot wide crater. Yoruichi winced at the amount of power going into the blows as she began to evade attacks rather than simply block them.

For his part Naruto no longer saw the simple training area but instead was reliving a memory in the form of a waking dream. Somehow as Yoruichi dodged and evaded him Naruto began to see in his mind's eye, images of a training battle long ago. Short purple hair was overlaid with the image of similarly-colored waist-length hair. A dark tan was subsumed by the memory of pale white skin and amber irises by lavender orbs.

A strange thing began to happen to Naruto's world. Sound and light became muted yet he was acutely aware of his surroundings on a near instinctual level. He could feel the reiatsu of the Kuchiki boy even before he spotted him, out of the corner of his vision, struggling to follow them with his eyes as they flitted about. He wore an expression of ill-concealed amazement tempered by determination.

The shadowy image of the woman, performed a series of light and fast spin kicks, seeming to dace in the air as she was bathed in sunlight. Yoruichi twisted to one side to avoid a blow from the sheathed nodachi and launched a brutal side kick. His memory-self drew a spool of wire and Shihoin Naruto knew exactly what to do.

It happened in an instant too brief to be called a moment. Faster than a heartbeat, faster than the blink of an eye, Byakuya's eyelids fluttered once and it was over. In a single breath-taking instant the Naruto that exists and the Naruto that existed synchronized in battle. Accelerating far beyond his current speed, the world began to become distorted around him as the spirits that truly composed the world of the dead became visible to his eyes.

Yoruichi was still able to move to evade him and beyond that instant would have succeeded but Naruto didn't use the time granted to him to tag her. He caught her. A blue scarf, embroidered with the images of a fox dancing among the clouds, wound around her left hand joining it to his right.

Yoruichi's eyes widened and filled with a curious mix of surprise and relief. Naruto watched as both women past and present reached out to his cheek with their free hand. Slowly, gently they tentatively leaned toward him. Soft sunlight cast them in silhouette, and as softly as a butterfly, Yoruichi kissed him. **Then there was a flash**.

As briefly as it came, the moment passed. Naruto dazedly looked up from where he laid in a three foot deep crater. He groaned in pain as the smell of singed hair and ozone filled his nostrils.

_What the hell was that?"_

For a second it had seemed that Yoruichi was wreathed in lightening, but no demon art Naruto knew of could do that. Something, however; did blast him to kingdom come, no wait he was already there. Yoruichi smiled ruefully at him as she patiently lead away a dumbstruck Kuchiki Byakuya who was watching a singed and frizzle-haired Naruto.

"_Did she just kiss me?" _

Yoruichi's bare shoulders were smoking lightly and she held her white captain's haori in her right hand. A shadow loomed over Naruto and he looked up to see Haruka and some retainers standing next to him.

"This is definitely coming out of your pay."

The Fractured Room was in shambles, ravaged by demon arts and high-level hakudo techniques. A forest fire raged overhead and liberated clouds of smoke into the air. Yoruichi had in essence stuck him with the tab, one hell of a tab.

"_That bitch!"_

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**Present**

Grumbling slightly, Naruto followed along in his fox form. Yoruichi had volunteered to teach him the skill after the fight when Naruto had cornered her after finally putting out the forest fire. It had taken a day of boring meditation, most of which Yoruichi slept through or ate out on Naruto's tab but he had finally resolved the differences between the two methods of transformation. Although he was unable to cast and dispel more complex illusions Naruto saw great potential in this new ability which was one of the few areas that he surpassed Yoruichi, other than inhaling large amounts of food.

The fox yipped quizzically as cat Yoruichi leapt down an open hatch incongruously located at the edge of a large meadow. Giving an animalistic shrug the fox Naruto jumped in after the cat. What he saw surprised him as he landed in a vast underground cavern with an artificial sky. Urahara Kisuke and a human form, and properly dressed, Yoruichi stood waiting for him.

"_Don't they need a permit for something like this?" _

As if seeming to read his thoughts Kisuke laughed sheepishly and greeted him. Naruto had heard a rumor that the Captain of the Twelfth Division was retiring and apparently Yoruichi had entered Urahara's name for consideration. As was typical for Yoruichi this was done without the knowledge or consent of Urahara.

There was only one problem, well there were many more than that, but the only thing that concerned Yoruichi was the fact that Urahara couldn't use bankai and there were only ten days until the captain's examination before Genryusai-sama. Fortunately, Urahara had a plan, unfortunately for Naruto…

"You want me to be a guinea pig?"

"A guinea pig is a little bit of an exaggeration." Urahara carefully amended.

"Why me?"

Kisuke looked at Yoruichi briefly and then responded to Naruto.

"I've heard about your bankai from Yoruichi and I believe I have a hypothesis about how it works."

Yoruichi and Naruto looked interested.

"Mugen no Murakumo in its released state creates a special particle using your reiatsu as an initial power source. This particle is a self-replicating, infinitely energy draining tool that is so small that water molecules bond to its surface by electrostatic attraction. Since there are several billion billions of these particles the overall effect is the creation of clouds and mist. These special particles can absorb spiritrons from both the atmosphere and from coherent spiritual bodies like a soul-reapers zanpakuto and it is this last skill that gave me an idea."

Urahara showed naruto something that he had been holding under his arm. It was a vaguely human shaped and sized doll with various circuitry covering its surface. The man proudly proclaimed.

"This device takes absorbs spiritual power from a zanpakuto and manifests it in physical form. I haven't tested it so using this tool may have some unforeseen dangers."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "If it's so dangerous why do you think I'll agree to help you?"

"Since you already have a bankai there should be no dangers for you." Urahara answered. "Besides that, this device was modeled after your own powers I think that you'll have an easier time using it,"

Naruto was skeptical but looked at Yoruichi's pleading expression and sighed.

"_I just know I'm gonna regret this!"_

Upon his agreement Urahara set the device feet first in the earth and said.

"Good, now you just need to stab right here…"

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**Present in an unknown location**

Two men stood shrouded in darkness as they casually spoke treason and murder.

"The prototype was a failure, in the end the yield was not sustainable."

"How is the other project going?"

"It's still too early to test it, ten years maybe."

"Can't be helped then, a pity."

"We'll begin with normal human souls."

"_**Yes."**_

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**AN: First of all for those of you who wanted to see what Naruto butterfly swords looked like this is the link en./wiki/Butterflysword. Second after this chapter I will be reworking the first three chapters to correct spelling and grammar errors as well as make the whole thing more of an easy read.**

**For those of you who have read my author's page as well as these end of story notes you should know the original reason that I had for beginning this story. I admire writers who write for the sake of improving their skill and try my best to listen to any helpful critique. On the other hand I think that any writer who compromises his or her creativity solely to please a reader is short-changing not only themselves but their readers as well.**

**What it all comes down to is why did you decide to write? For me the reason was the fact that I liked the original work and I liked to write in my free time. Different people have different reasons I'm sure. As long as you remember just what that reason is then being flamed, I suspect that I'm calling lightening by saying this, should not bother you unless of course the story was meant to please everyone.**

**Not everybody will like this story but I hope that whether or not you hate it that you at least will try your hand at writing before thinking to put down someone's hard work. In that respect I think that authors shouldn't be overly concerned by what other people say. They should pay attention yes, but if I write a story that I like then inevitably there will be someone out there who has the same likes as I do even if its just ten people in ten thousand . It's a slightly impractical approach in commercial writing but then this is fanfiction .net isn't it?**


	11. Chapter 11

**His life has come to an end yet he continues on surpassing death itself. Taken in by a noble clan what destiny lies before him? Unknowing of his fate he continues on to a destined meeting. Naruto's fate as a member of the Shihoin Clan hangs in the balance! His greatest bane is now his ally?! A mystery looms about Naruto. Just what has he forgotten? And having remembered he proceeds into an uncertain future. Steeped in darkness what bloody path does he walk. And where he goes the winged lord soars. Onward, upward to where the shinigami demon cat awaits. His path leads to her side.**

**I do not own or profit from the anime/manga Naruto or Bleach. This story is just for fun.**

"Speaking"

"_Thinking"_

**"Mugen to naruto"**

"_**Murakumo to naruto"**_

**((Hollow speak))**

**Then there was a Flash,**

**A Stream of Lightning**

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He shouldn't have let them talk him into this. He really should not have let them talk him into this shit. And that bitch, no not Yoruichi, the other one who was supposedly his partner, his ally, his confidante, that sadistic self-centered piece of sh-!

A great whirlwind, composed of giant slicing blades of wind very nearly engulfed him as he again used shunpo to get out of the way in the nick of time. He reappeared at the edge of a trench dug out of the ground b a giant kirishuuha. He leapt across the chasm to avoid an uzuki kirikaze and retaliated with one of his own smaller blades of wind. The attack was batted aside with ease and Naruto groaned.

"**I can hear what your thinking, you know!"** Mugen smirked as she twirled a naganata form Murakumo. Wind and mist, trailed from its wide, flat, and jagged curved blade. Bracing herself and gripping the zanpakuto tightly with both hands she threw the spear which had been encased in Neji Kirikaze and it flew through the air like a missile toward Naruto. He ducked behind a rock outcropping but a thin, storm-blue string of mist that connected the butt of the spear to Mugen's hand twisted and allowed her to modify the trajectory of the naginata, the tip of the blade punched into and through the rock, passing out the other side with minimal resistance. Mugen jerked back her hands and the handle of the Naginata separated from the head of the weapon that was now deeply buried in the earth, revealing a two meter long O-Katana to have been hidden in the shaft of the naginata.

The hilt of the sword settled into her hands in time to deflect a blow from above by Naruto's jian. Using the superior leverage of the long sword Mugen put the full force of her body behind the blade as she tossed Naruto off of her and nicked his shoulder with the pointed tip of the sword. Gripping the hilt with her teeth she dropped to her hands and knees before charging toward the tumbling young teen. Running low to the ground in the flowing gait of a cheetah, she gripped the handle of the O-katana at the last second. Digging her toes into the soil, her tattooed feet dragged backward as her entire body contracted and then uncoiled like a spring. The blade made a whistling noise as it cut through the air toward Naruto. The blond shinigami had managed to right himself in time to block the strike with his jian but his hands, wrists, shoulders and chest began to spurt blood where the following wave of wind and water struck him like a thousand needles. The terrifying force behind the blade sent the shinigami hurtling backward until he crashed into the rock face of the underground cavern.

Urahara and Yoruichi covered their faces.

"Ooohh! That's gotta hurt!"

"Kisuke, are you seriously thinking of using this thing?"

"Haha, well maybe I should recalibrate it to draw on less reiatsu."

"_Ugh! The life of a guinea pig, it has its ups and downs." _Naruto thought as he slid down to his knees and then fell forward onto his face, _"That freaking hurt!"_

As he faded from consciousness the world about him changed. Naruto was now lying face down on a trail in a vast and shadowy forest. Suprisingly, in spite of its intimidating aura he felt strangely peaceful. His bruises and other wounds had disappeared and as he rolled to his back he found that he could see clearly through both eyes. A light mist began to filter in through the forest trees and as Naruto sat up. Hearing the sound of trickling water he walked through the trees, following the sound until he found a clearing at the edge of a pond. For the second time in life and unlife, Naruto looked upon a certain moonlit scene.

She danced ubon the surface of the lake, her hair flowing in a stream behind her. The moonlight illuminated her figure and cast her naked silhouette in shadow. She twirled an O-katana through the air as she leapt and skipped on the water's rippling surface. Zephers wound around her as she fell to bended knee. The tip of the blade pointed at him, where he hid behind a tree. Sky blue eye gazed into orbs that were the crimson of a red rose at dawn. She smiled at him mysteriously as Naruto wished, absentmindedly for a time long past and a certain woman whose lavender gaze thrilled him even now, two hundred years later.

"_**Your heart wavers, having no past or future."**_

Suddenly angry he yelled out and was at once ashamed of his outburst.

"What's wrong with that? I keep being plagued by these half-formed memories that I can no longer fully remember!"

"_**You know all you need to, you need not a heart that wavers."**_

"I…can't help but feel…afraid."

"_**Fear cannot be allowed to rule, yours is a will that is absolute."**_

"Tell that to Mugen!"

"_**Two hearts must beat together as one; this forest and this Murakumo were born from that power."**_

He bowed his head at Murakumo's words and his eyes were covered in shadow. When next he opened his eyes he stood again upon the rocky field of the underground cavern. He could see Yoruichi and Urahara placing bets on the outcome of the fight, he noted that Yuroichi had no qualms about betting against him. A shadow appeared above him as Mugen fell from the ceiling and plummeted toward him with her sword outstretched. He didn't move and he didn't bother to dodge. Naruto simple thought about Murakumo's words and just why he was having difficulty increasing the spiritual density of his soul slayer.

"_A heart that does not waver, huh?" _

He reached out and grabbed the blade of the sword as it plunged toward him. His palm and chest were impaled but the zanpakuto missed his heart by a hairs breadth. Calm blue eyes studied the grinning face of his opponent as he twisted the O-Katana that he had stabbed into Mugens heart as she fell upon him. All was still for a fleeting instant. Then a burst of energy was released in a gust of cool wind and mist. Yoruichi and Kisuke were forced to cover their eyes and in doing so missed the titanic form that cast Naruto in shadow. His eyes widened as he gazed up in shocked thought.

"_T-this… is the true form… of my… Bankai?!"_

As the figure fades with the mist a soft feminine laugh and a gentle purr could be heard.

"**Well Done!"**

After everything had settled down it was discovered that Kisuke's training dummy had been completely destroyed by the blast. Fortunately Urahara had all of the data that he needed and it would only take him a day to build a new training doll. It left them with only three days before the Captain's exam but Kisuke seemed confident in his ability to pass, or rather Yoruichi said he should. Naruto just wanted to go home and sleep. Of course, with Yoruichi there that was not meant to be.

"Ne, ne, Naruto-kuun"

"Huh?"

"I'm hungry, sooo…"

"Eh?"

"Buy me something to eat."

"…hell no…"

"So cruel…"

"I've seen the way you eat. Don't got the cash to pay for it even if I wanted to."

"I'll put it on your tab then. Bye, bye."

"H-hey Yoruichi! Damnit, come back here!"

"Nyah hah, hah Noodle-boy!"

Kisuke sighed as he stood over the smoking remains of his experimental battle doll Ririn 1. A spring had popped out of the broken remains and a white flag was waving in the wind.

"Ahhh, young love."

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Yoruichi hadn't let Naruto get much sleep, and not in the good way either. He now had several outstanding debts at various shops and restaurants. There was even some strange kid from the Shiba Clan riding around on a wild boar named Bessy, or Beauty, or Betty or whatever, who was spreading the word around that he'd better pay up or The Great Ganju would mess him up, sheesh!

He was now working double time to reduce the debts and had taken to gambling where, fortunately, his luck held out enough for him to get the Shiba kid off his back. Kotengu hadn't stopped needling him about it however. One would think that he would get a little sympathy from Haruka who had been forced to feed Yoruichi's stomach and then Yoruichi herself on multiple occasions. The woman merely smiled and laughed off his complaints, telling him to enjoy his time slacking off.

Slacking off while making a thirty million ryo food bill.

"_Yeah, right…fun."_

Incidentally Urahara Kisuke had somehow passed the Captain's exam and now held the office of Captain of the Twelfth division. Naruto hadn't had time to congratulate the man and of the chances that he did Naruto often opted to avoid coming near the skulking vice-president of the newly created Research and Development Institute. That guy was just gross. On Naruto's side of things it seemed that he was gaining a reputation within the Special Forces as a jack of all trades. It also appeared that he was now stronger, faster and generally more powerful than he had been before volunteering to be a guinea pig, although he had respectfully turned down missives from the Science division to volunteer as a test subject.

"_Even if they promised to only perform major invasive surgery twice a day and allow me three full days rest of after being exposed to toxic substances. Jeez Kisuke, what gives?"_

Naruto regularly oversaw the training and re-training of all active Special Forces field officers and new recruits for the Second Battalion. It was a position that he held separate from the Gotei Thirteen where his true identity as a Battalion general was a secret and he was officially listed as a non-seated officer within the Second Division asjust as it used to be common practice for his job. Most of his colleagues of the same rank had opted to expose themselves by taking up positions as officers within the Second Division in order to have the honor of protecting their General-Commander Yoruichi. Naruto had been resisting this move for some time and while his subordinates and fellow battalion commanders had respected his wishes, there were occasions when people from the other Special Forces groups had challenged him for the role as leader in the typical style of Black Ops, assassination.

It had actually come as a surprise to him although he had been warned repeatedly by Kotengu and Haruka. Naruto himself had been promoted to the position after the previous, commander, sub-commander and several assistants had been killed in a rash of incidents involving increased activity among the Menos Grande. Death and officer turnovers happened fairly often so the practice of assassinating command officers was generally frowned upon as wasteful, especially if they hadn't held office for more than a century like Naruto. The unofficial procedure was to wear them like a slightly tight shoe. If they begin to fit comfortably then leave them on, otherwise if they couldn't handle an assassination attempt then they weren't right for the job any way. The Special Forces was a separate entity from the Gotei 13 to begin with and so long as they kept their dirty laundry out of the public eye any deaths could simply be written off. Naruto was officially only a low-level gopher for the Division's official vice-captain. The man was actually feeling very insecure about the rash of new promotions and had taken to sending Naruto on nonsensical errands. Which was unfortunate since it seemed that none of Naruto's compatriots had quite wanted the amount of public attention that would come with taking _that_ position.

Now normally Naruto wouldn't have had to worry about the practice of ascension by murdering superiors for another fifty to sixty years. What changed things however, was his perceived refusal to serve under Yorucihi within the Gotei 13. Those who knew Naruto of course understood that his actions were motivated by the need to maximize the amount of time that he had to devote to training his soldiers and managing the division. Reports and representatives were what he was supposed to use to communicate with the head unless she requested a secret meeting. Low level officers from the other Battallions didn't see it that way and before too long, Narto's first test of leadership came in an amazing way.

They had actually been poisoning him by lacing his tea with insanely large doses of toxic chemicals. After a few weeks they hadn't even added any tea to the mixture, simply pouring out the toxin into a teacup and having an agent serve it hot. Naruto had been completely oblivious to the efforts of his would be assassins and within a month had gained an immunity to every type of poison they could get into him. It had even gotten to the point that Mugen no Murakumo had been affected. Naruto of course just thought that he had unlocked a new ability in his new poison mist technique. Mugen, the bitch, thought the whole thing was just hilarious even as she enhanced his cellular regeneration as a counter to the damage done by the poison. And here Naruto was complimenting his server on the excellently 'spiced' tea and commenting about how he needed to get the recipe for that secret ingredient that smelled of bitter almonds.

Unnerved by his seeming invulnerability to poison the perpetrators had abandoned their approach and chosen to attack him head on. That meant that they had waited until he was sleeping, snuck into his room in the barracks and tried to stab him to death. At least in that attempt, Naruto wasn't completely oblivious.

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It as nighttime and the overcast sky was covering the moon. In a facility filled to the brim with **onmitsu** what they were attempting was beyond risky. However, any price was worth it to rid themselves of that man. And then, the power that they could command, their leader could become the glorious general that the stealth-tracking and scouting group truly deserved. Just one obstacle stood in the way and after tonight that oaf would be dead!

Actions spoke louder than words however, and the three men listened intently to the pattern of breathing, for the shifting of sheets, to the pace of the heartbeat and to other audio cues to indicate their target's state of being. Divining that he was asleep, the leader gave a tight grin that was hidden by his mask and signaled an all clear sign to his comrades. Carefully, he opened the door just a sliver, shielding the aperture with his body to prevent any outside light from spilling in. Applying grease to the runners of the sliding door, he silently opened it just enough to allow him and his fellow assassins to spill inside like silken shadows, slowly stalking upon the sleeping blond. Once within striking distance the leader uncoiled from the shadows of the floor and raised a tanto high overhead, then struck.

A pillow, Naruto had turned his head to the side at the very last second. The three murderers paused and held their breath for a frightened second.

"_Was he snoring? Yes he was!" _

At an unspoken signal the three men surrounded the teen and took aim at jugular, heart and femoral artery respectively.

Stab! Stab! Stab!

"_What the fuck?!"_

Still asleep Naruto was sketching a ridiculous pose as he stretched in his sleep, avoiding all three blades and even managing to kick one of the men in the nuts with an errant foot. The man fell back with a muffled thud and Naruto grumbled in his sleep.

"Quit making a racket."

Deciding to abandon stealth the leader tossed aside his tanto and swiftly unsheathed his zanpakuto preparing to decapitate his foe, who he was certain, was toying with him. At this point Naruto's sleepy mind finally acquiesced to Mugen's frantic request and muttered a single word.

"Raikuhou"

Then there was a flash of light and a stream of **lightning** poured out the door and through a new skylight in the roof. Naruto had been forced to pay for repairs take the blame for the damage too. After explaining away the charred corpses to investigators from the corps, Naruto had a little heart to heart chat with Haruka and Kotengu before deciding on a course of action.

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And so it was that Naruto found himself attending the twice yearly ranking event for new officers wearing his customary face and hair mask for public events. He had waited patiently for his turn even as the Vice-captain yelled at him for providing the wrong flavor of mango juice, the fact that it was too cold, too hot and that the only way to apologize was a foot massage. When his name was called as a challenger against the Vice-captain he donned a straw hat with a thin veil sown to the brim, even further obscuring his features. To the man's credit the Vice-captain didn't bluster at all when the match was announced. He stood before Naruto, grim and silent, the very picture of competency.

He lasted for about five seconds. Naruto had grasped the man's great-sword shikai in one hand, weathering the blow even as the entire brick pavilion shattered underfoot sending some onlookers tumbling. He had delivered a crushing punch to the man's gut before trapping his wrist and elbow in a joint lock and throwing him over the shoulder. Naruto had finished things off with a stylish jumping kick to the man's center of mass, one hand on his hat, the other hand pointing to the human-shaped hole in the former superior officer made in the cinderblock wall. He had spent the next two hours defending his position from over eager officers including that Soi Fon girl. He hadn't even needed to use his left hand to deal with them. He accepted the badge as he sat atop the small mound of bruised and broken bodies.

As long as he disguised his appearance, even taking the position of a Vice-captain shouldn't be a matter of concern. Right? All in all Naruto felt quite self-satisfied. It was at that point after a round of congratulations that the other shoe fell.

Eight hundred and sixty years of unfiled reports, acquisition forms, requests for downtime, pay-raises, building expansions, loans, tax returns and more. All for Naruto and Naruto alone to deal with!

That was, of course, completely aside from the backlog of cases that Yoruichi wanted him to handle for her on top of his own duties. Naruto had a bone to pick with that girl, just as soon as he found her.

"_Is it too late to get assassinated?" _

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**AN: I've been reworking the early chapters of the story to make it a little confusing for readers. I got a little emotional over Naruto's death scene and had left out the indicators to show from where in the canon story the lines were coming from. To those of you who missed it, some of the lines are taken from Jiraiya vs Pein where he reminisces about how Naruto got his name and another is from the scene where Orochimaru is fighting Jiraiya during the Bring Back Tsunade arc. I just added a couple of paragraphs and modified a few pages of dialogue. I've also been working on a new story called Ninkai no Ou. Try giving it a read. TTFN. **


	12. Chapter 12

**His life has come to an end yet he continues on surpassing death itself. Taken in by a noble clan what destiny lies before him? Unknowing of his fate he continues on to a destined meeting. Naruto's fate as a member of the Shihoin Clan hangs in the balance! His greatest bane is now his ally?! A mystery looms about Naruto. Just what has he forgotten? And having remembered he proceeds into an uncertain future. Steeped in darkness what bloody path does he walk. And where he goes the winged lord soars. Onward, upward to where the shinigami demon cat awaits. His path leads to her side. His powers begin to flourish.**

**I do not own or profit from the anime/manga Naruto or Bleach. This story is just for fun.**

"Speaking"

"_Thinking"_

"**Kyuubi to naruto"**

"_**Mugen to naruto"**_

**((Hollow speak))**

**Soifon **

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The members of the newly formed Research Institute were taken from the Twelfth Division's Research and Development Labs and the 'withdrawn' members of the executive force's secret holding facility. In their own way these scientists and oddballs were grateful to have a place to call their own, a semi-autonomous body with actual responsibilities and dare we say it, the world may tremble, _expectations_.

In their own way these shinigami felt a newfound sense of honor and pride in themselves, even if the other shinigami groups and some members of their division didn't know where they stood. Any feeling of uncertainty was well hidden behind a new sense of purpose that pervaded the Institute. If the price of freedom was being seen as an oddball then so be it! But even among the oddballs Kurotsuchi Mayuri was a bit much to take. Usually reserved, if a bit snappish in public, in private he had an unfortunate tendency to speak to himself, often holding entire conversations in his head and aloud.

After overhearing a muttered comment from Captain Aigawa about getting Captain Unohana to re-examine his mental stability Mayuri quickly realized that the situation needed to change, he couldn't continue talking to imaginary people and the other scientists tended quickly to wander off whenever he became too involved in his rants. After being subjected to a long, considering look from _that_ Shihoin Yoruichi, Mayuri did what any _sane_ man would do. If he couldn't be seen talking to an imaginary friend then he would just have to **make** one.

For some strange reason Mayuri was strangely lacking in female companionship. Still it wasn't as if any of those women could properly cater to his very _special_ needs. Yes Kurotsuchi Mayuri was a very fragile man with important needs, he had no shame in admitting it. He dreamed of a family of his own, a wife intelligent enough to assist in his experiments yet willing to bask silently in the divine light of his brilliance, someone who shared his love of experimentation and self-improvement, a woman who truly enjoyed a good **vivisection** in the morning, relaxing to the beat of her own exposed heart while his gloved hands touched her there where no man had ever before ventured within her, surgical virginity was very important to Mayuri.

Yes! The very idea filled him with longing. His phallus which had been detached and placed within a specimen jar slowly lengthened to the utterly amazed disgust of a passing Hiyori. He chuckled as he imagined all the unborn fetuses he could gain, the subjects for long term studies he would perform. Kurotsuchi Mayuri saw not children but a legacy of …test subjects. Unfortunately most females had fled after he patiently explained his desires, irrational things. They had spread the word until even his most cunning endeavors had ended in failure, he just couldn't close. His attempt to obtain a subject for modification to his specifications had woefully been thwarted and was the final straw that resulted in him being placed in a secret detention facility rather than being allowed to share his enlightenment with others.

It had been a harsh lesson for Mayuri, the world did not understand genius. Still his new attempt was bound to succeed so long as he was careful in how he acquired 'parts'. With many of the other captains beside Urahara Kisuke keeping an eye on him things were tight, but there was nothing wrong with discrete scavenging bodies after they left the fourth division and as for the more noticeable pieces of raw material, well, accidents happened and people were killed by Hollows all the time. A half-eaten corpse could easily be mauled by other opportunistic Hollows destroying all evidence of an unauthorized harvesting.

"_Yeeesss!_"

One look at Mayuri's leering face was enough to convince half of the scientists there that they had really forgotten to do something urgent that was very far from the Labs.

"A…_daughter_…Yes…_I will make_…a sweet…_sweet_….daughter…_hehe_…mine…_she'll_…be mine…_all mine!_ Hehheh."

The semi-audible, fractured murmuring was enough to creep out even Hiyosu who quietly sidled away until he was out the door. After a few minutes Mayuri was the last person in that lab.

"My darling! Heee!"

Silence…

"Huh?! What's going on here, where are those slackers?! Get back to work!!"

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**Decades Earlier**

"_**If…"**_

"_**If you…"**_

The young boy fell unto his ass; the searing chill did nothing to help calm his nerves. His knees had failed him as had his bladder. He felt no shame as pungent urine stained his clothes and wet his legs, the smell was nothing compared to the scent of fear that hung thick upon the air. He had _seen_ it with his own eyes, he had seen it. His mind while comparatively young was old enough, or perhaps considering Soul society's individual comparative longevity, still young enough to remember a similar scene.

"_**Demon…"**_

A world torn by war, famine, death and plague where father's sold their children for food and mothers killed their babies to spare them suffering. Whores resorted to offering their services for free so that they could literally eat their client's semen to survive. Nothing was too depraved. If your family was killed by bandits, rejoice for you were still alive. Think nothing of stepping on another on your way out of living hell.

"…_**dark forest"**_

If you are a girl sell yourself, if you are a boy, do the same. If you are a woman watch your family be killed by bandits or stolen away by lords to fight in their wars. Become a whore and survive or if you have the wit and the skill sell drugs, perhaps find a new husband or toil away at blood soaked soil alone. Whatever you do gouge out your neighbors' eyes out before they do the same to you. If you are a man go to war, or become a bandit and prey on the weak, or sell weapons and drugs to enemies, spread your suffering like sprinkling fine manure, shit on the world before it shits on you.

"…_**no…hope…despair"**_

There was no mercy in his world. His parents didn't name him because they weren't sure if they would be forced to feed him to the pigs. Pigs were food and money, far more valuable than a child. He ate as much as he could get away with and worked as hard as it took for his father to stop eying the black market slavers speculatively. Children were selfish beasts. He thought nothing of the fact that his mother gave him all her food yet worked three times as hard as he did. She starved to death and he shed not a tear.

"…_**but…a hand…"**_

His father sold him to the slave caravan the very next day; the only ones who ate better than that man were the pigs. Life at the caravan was strange at first, even after being washed and dressed in worn but fresh clothes he was still a thin and scruffy urchin. The female slaves doted on him and the male slavers found him too unappealing to their tastes. Considering what the women went through it was a blessing indeed. His life was luxurious by his previous standard and he slept snugly dreaming of feasting on bloated pigs after they had eaten his parents. A woman gave him a name, something soft and full of love, the name her son should have had. He felt like some parasitic usurper, he was happy.

"…_**salvation…"**_

Then he died.

"…_**Salvation!"**_

The women shielded him until the end. The guards had betrayed the slavers and in turn all but one was betrayed by the bandits. The money was taken. The youngest and prettiest of the women were raped alive, the other were hacked to death and defiled when it became apparent that some of the bandits would not get their turn any time soon. He hid in a thicket with the one who named him, cowering in fear. His eyes latched unto the dead orbs of a decapitated head that was kicked across the ground and he fled screaming, drawing the attention of the bandits to the hidden woman.

"…_**the…devil…"**_

Small feet beat uselessly against the earth as he was chased down by a bandit. There was a flash of silver light and hot blood splashed into his eyes. He fell back under the weight of a body. Had he been capable of coherent thought he would have realized that the still warm breasts of the one who named him were pressed against his chest a final act of penance for the child she lost. In his mind he prayed for a miracle, for mercy, for anything. But as he looked into the cold eyes of the man who stood above him, who had a family of his own to feed he realized the truth that he had always known. His final agonized thought as the sword pierced his neck was thus.

"_There are no miracles in this world, no happy endings_."

"…_**the devil…"**_

The force of reiatsu that now pressed against him was beyond crushing. It felt vile and intrusive and he was forced to surrender to it absolutely, anything less would have been unthinkable. He had seen it, the true form…

_Of the thing that was staring at him!_

An outstretched, blood soaked katana pointed directly at him an affection of the monster. The moonlight glinted off of his silver hair now stained by blood. He stared back unflinchingly at the chestnut eyes that glowed with a soft fiendish light. Immaculately shaped lips smiled roguishly.

"…_**the devil…"**_

He was not fooled.

"…_**the devil…"**_

He waited for it, completely accepting his fate, unsurprised by neither the nearness nor the unexpectedness of his coming end. He almost welcomed escape but did not dare take his eyes off of the thing before him. He knew from that inoffensive, affable smile that to do so was to die so he stared back without blinking for he did not wish to die. Until the stinging of his sweat pouring into opened eyes caused him to grit his teeth, that subtle shift was almost the end but then something changed. Those calm assessing eyes seemed to understand something about the boy's intrinsic nature and the man smiled in a kind and fatherly manner.

"…_**offered…would…"**_

"Do you have a name?" The man's voice was soft and almost hypnotically melodic.

"…_**you"**_

Silence

"It's important to have a name, think of one." Not a request.

"_**...take…it?"**_

"G-Gin." The boy's thoughts were centered solely on appeasing the one before him.

"Hmm, you should eat, even though you are dead as long as you have spirit power you will get hungry and need to eat." Turning away the brown haired man was about to leave.

"Grow strong and come before me again child." Also not a request.

"_**If you met a Demon in the Dark Forest and there was no hope, only despair but then a hand offered you salvation. Salvation! Would you take it? Even if that hand belonged to the devil himself! Would you still take it?"**_

"H-Hai."

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**Present**

Aizen Sōsuke sneezed.

"Fukutaichou, someone's talking about 'cha."

"Morning senpai."

"Senpai!"

"Good morning Aizen-senpai!"

"On your rounds Aizen-senpai, good luck!"

"Kyaaaahhh! 'whisper' Aizen-fukutaichou! 'sigh'."

Off hand he couldn't really think of anyone too troublesome to him. Things were actually turning out quite nicely as Aizen Sōsuke quirked his lips at a group of blushing female shinigami who promptly scattered. There was the new lieutenant at the second division that seemed interesting only in passing. The Shihoin Clan seemed to be holding him quite close to their breast.

He idly though about killing the boy.

He waved back at Captain Kyouraku. That one' attention had been to result of one of his early experiments. There was no evidence linking him to the cause of his former captain's death but he had been unable to completely erase Unohana's suspicions. It just meant that he needed to be somewhat more circumspect in his activities.

They were all suspicious of him, it was almost unerving.

Almost.

Those who were weak sought power. Those who were powerless flocked to the powerful. Those who were powerful sought more. As a shinigami the pinnacle of heaven was the throne of the spirit King, what lay beyond that….

Aizen didn't view his methods as ruthless; they were just the best way to get results. Peace was a time to grow stronger not an excuse for stagnation. He paused for a moment and looked off into the distance. Something had teased at his senses but was now gone, the failure was yet another example of how far he had yet to go. He shrugged ruefully and shook his head in a manner that caused another group of admirers to giggle furiously.

He kept on walking, dragging the misshapen corpse behind him. Another fourth division janitor took it upon herself to clean up the dirty walkway, wiping away the blood without recognition or comment.

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**Present**** as Aizen drags a corpse**

He had arranged for use of one of Urahara's private training grounds. He had deliberately not warned Yoruichi about the protocol meeting with the General-Commander's staff working things to coincide with a false summons that would keep most of the 2nd Division's Cannon fodder scrambling to complete long overdue paperwork and tying down Yoruichi long enough that she would have no choice but to attend the meeting instead of living up to her nickname and playing hooky.

He figured that he had bought himself a good six hours of uninterrupted training time before she was free to come after him for revenge. Naruto would have to make the coming trouble worth the effort of dealing with.

He closed his eyes and stepped into a circle of darkness. Mugen was waiting for him.

"_**Until now we've been pussyfooting around the issue. We're both much stronger and weaker than we were in life and it's your entire fault." **_She said bitingly.

Naruto just sighed.

"_**Our power has been refined and increased to a degree that would not be possible**__** for mortals, you are a Shinigami your power as a mortal neared that which the old General allows us to see, far more than that nasty black pussycat before she turns into a lightning rod. Your power now exceeds what I possessed when we were still in the elemental nations as a mortal you would not have been able to retain a human form."**_

Something about those last eleven words sparked a memory in Naruto. He had been studying under the sages when he had asked a question. What was it? It nagged at him that he couldn't remember what had prompted him to pose the question but he remembered the answer.

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**Indeterminate Past**

Fukasaku grumbled a bit about the idiocy of tadpoles before finally deigning to answer. Naruto held is anger in check and thought happy thoughts. They had been probing his temper for weeks testing his self-control constantly.

Fukasaku tossed the scroll he had been reading back to Naruto and answered while peering out one eye. "No."

"What!" Naruto yelped, "It should work I spent a year working on that!"

"Yep!" The sage huffed, "It works alright it'll do what you want it to."

Naruto preened although he still looked a little confused.

"Then you'll die, taking out everything around you in a massive explosion." The sage frog continued.

"But, but the array should handle the extra load!" Naruto complained.

"And it will if you were using it to open all eight gates without dying afterwards, or trying to double the amount of power that you can usually get out of the big fuzzball."

"But it shoul-" Naruto tried only to be interrupted by the old frog.

"You can't use it to channel the life force of the entire world. Even if the array held out under a fraction of the load that much energy changes ya, it alters the fabric of reality and the lifeforms withinit yer spirit would stay the same but yer body would no longer be human hmmm!"

Despite Naruto's best efforts the elder frog would not budge on his position. He wasn't however going to give up on his work.

"This array can halve the strain of any jutsu that I do right?" Naruto chirped in excitement.

"Yeah?" the elder frowned.

"Ever heard of Ultimate, Fuuton Oodama Magen Rasenshuriken?"

"Do I even want to know?"

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**Inner World**

"_**Your power now exceeds what I possessed when we were still in the elemental nations as a mortal you would not have been able to retain a human form…."**_ Mugen trailed off at Naruto's vacant expression.

"We have to trust each other." Naruto suddenly stated.

"_**Yes"**_ Mugen warily responded.

"As long as we don't the best that we can do is synchronize." Naruto added.

"_**Our powers are engaging in mutual annihilation the more that we fight each other and distrust one another. Give me access to your soul deep so that we can strengthen Murakumo."**_ Mugen challenged.

"Allright." Naruto agreed readily.

Mugen was startled by the easy cooperation and knew that something was up. _**"What's the catch?"**_

"Well there's this seal…"

"_**No."**_

"It's just going to…"

"_**No**__**!"**_

"It won't"

"_**No!"**_

"I'll just…"

"_**No!"**_

"We have to trust each other" Naruto sighed over Mugen's objections

"_**Your point?"**_ Mugen snarled.

"Trust goes both ways." Naruto answers.

Silence

After Mugen had begun to settle into Naruto's soul deep A Murakumo clone finished the final elements of the seal.

Fukasaku was wrong about one thing, the release of power it a lot bigger than a 'massive explosion', for a second, the worlds trembled. Soul Society was saved by the brevity of the energy pulse and the overly enthusiastic use of spirit repelling stone. Naruto owed Urahara a new secret lair though.

"_**So… how did you get Soifon to cover for your paper work?"**_

Groan

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The Second division is a highly structuralized, tradition oriented group with several redundant offices and multiple safeguards against internal tampering of information. It was a true bureaucracy. Unfortunately the majority of officers working for the second division considered themselves warriors and needed to be nailed in place just to write one report let alone fill it out in triplicate, with all of the appropriate signatures, stamps, and affidavits. While the second division did on occasion 'forget' the existence of a certain prisoner at the unofficial suggestion of Central 46. To actually lose track of an individual or an important report could be fatal to a patrol group let alone an embarrassment to the division. So as a result all of the mission critical data was sent to the captain and her personal assistants while everything else got sent to the vice-captain.

Yoruichi had help, and regularly spent entire days secluded in her office and still had a floor to ceiling pile of files, after being tracked down like a wild animal. Naruto's job was to catch anything that she or her assistants might miss on top of all of his other assignments and responsibilities within the division and without. Officially his workload was double hers; unofficially it was more like four times as much. Naruto finally understood why his Fukutaichou was such an asshole.

The officers who hadn't even wasted the effort to sneer at him when he was a gopher now struggled to remember what his face looked like making the veiled straw hat even more intimidating. There were a lot of efforts to get him to take it off but after the second round of broken bones and bruised asses from several severe to mild butt-kicking sessions, Naruto took the euphemism literally, all that was left was a universal feeling of bemusement even within his own brigade. The other special forces commanders hadn't expected him to do something like this as he had always been a quiet though well respected member.

There was some initial resistance by the few second division shinigami who had been on patrol duty in the living world. The resistance increased when Naruto found out about the back-log of cases and started a campaign to enlist all low-seated and unseated officers to help in eliminating the paperwork. There were a few more murder attempts and a strong resistance which were dealt with by Naruto in one of three ways.

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He was blind, deaf, and numb. He hadn't even heard a kido chant or sensed a presence, slowly, very slowly his three stricken senses began to return, first sight. He was in some sort of field and out of the corner of his eye he could see several other rocks strewn across the ground. His attention was grabbed by something flickering in an invisible wind. He squinted at the silhouette and his mouth went dry.

"_Oh kami!_" He thought, "_Does he know?_"

He tried reading the man's lips but they were obscured even from this low angle. Something nagged at his mind and when the sense of touch returned he quickly realized what it was. His arms were bound to his sides somehow and he was buried up to his neck in the earth.

He screamed.

As his hearing began to return the vice-captains words stunned him.

"I happen to know that at one time or another each of you have either plotted, singly or in groups to kill me. So I'll offer you a final warning."

Incredulous the man craned his head as far as it would turn and saw that the rock strewn meadow was actually filled with the heads of men buried up to their chins in the earth. He could guess why they were there since all of the members of his little murder plot were present.

"We are a family and must work together to avoid the deaths of our comrades otherwise the second division cannot function."

One of the captured men tried to yell something defiant when a horrifically familiar roar rent the air.

"_Hollow!_"

The fukutaichou continued in a quiet even tone that cut through the rising panic. "I have to trust you and you have to trust me, or people will die."

Twenty-four dirty but unharmed bodies returned to sleep in their barracks that night.

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Ōmaeda Nikkōtarōemon Yoshiayamenosuke Marechiyo-dono, Ōmaeda Nikkōtarōemon Yoshiayamenosuke Marechiyo-dono, Ōmaeda Nikkōtarōemon Yoshiayamenosuke Marechiyo-don_o._ Impressed in spite of himself the short pudgy boy turned to meet the one who had called him out. "Hmmm, what do you want with an academy student he stated imperiously, deliberately refusing to acknowledge the status of the man before him.

Mari-kun it seems that you've been making some most unfortunate comments around Soul Society.

Ōmaeda bristled at the diminutive of his name but retorted evenly. "Hmm there's nothing wrong with stating my opinion about the breeding practices of the strays taken in by the Shihoin." At the end he had tried to sneer at the man but there was an odd prickling of the hairs at the back of his neck that distracted him. In a cold voice that caused him to break out in shivers Naruto continued talking to the boy. "A few of for retainers have attempted to rectify the, freak of nature and eliminate usurpers."

Ōmaedatried to sneer but found that he had broken into a cold sweat. The lieutenant continued with implacable calm. "I also know about your sister and the effort taken to hide the 'stain' upon the family name that her biological mother represented, I have quite extensive records of the investigation that your family sealed." Now Ōmaeda was sure that he would puke and just as he hurled his lunch on his sandals he gagged as a forceful hand slapped his back powerfully and a voice whispered into his ear. "Don't fuck with me."

Ōmaeda kept on gasping long after Naruto left until his heart slowed and the bruise on his back began to ache dully. He didn't really feel like applying for the second division anyway.

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**The day before the Naruto went Bang Incident**

Soifon stared at the masked Naruto, then at what was in his hand.

She stared at his hand, then at the mountain of paperwork that represented the out box.

She stared at his hand, then at the **literal** mountain of paperwork and filing boxes filling the warehouse created just for them.

She hesitated.

Naruto being helpful pointed out that that he had more than just a complete set of Yoruichi guzzling food pictures. He also had Yoruichi napping and a naughty, naughty special that she had shot herself.

Deal.

Bribery, blackmail and intimidation ruled the world.

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**Eeehhh a lot of people had some nice things to say, usually the ****ones who read up to chapter eleven. This chapter was originally supposed to be all Soifon but I wound up focusing a lot more on Ichimaru Gin. The next chapter will have more Soifon and Naruto in it, explaining the exploding Naruto phenomenon and about Soifon herself. I tried imagining the kind of person that would be able to befriend Rangiku and yet be Aizen's pet. There are deliberate parallels between this supposed first meeting of Aizen and Gin and the meeting between Gin and Rangiku.**

**A quietly intimidating character is fun though I just depicted Aizen as something monstrous from Gin's perspective so that I could build on other ideas later. To become as strong as he is don't you think that Aizen may have been doing some self experimentation? Mayuri is just one of those harmlessly amusing guys that are actually not so harmless and make you laugh even as you cringe in horror and place a call for the guys in white suits. TTFN **


	13. Chapter 13

**His life has come to an end yet he continues on surpassing death itself. Taken in by a noble clan what destiny lies before him? Unknowing of his fate he continues on to a destined meeting. Naruto's fate as a member of the Shihoin Clan hangs in the balance! His greatest bane is now his ally?! A mystery looms about Naruto. Just what has he forgotten? And having remembered he proceeds into an uncertain future. Steeped in darkness what bloody path does he walk. And where he goes the winged lord soars. Onward, upward to where the shinigami demon cat awaits. His path leads to her side. His powers begin to flourish. And time, Moves on... **

**I do not own or profit from the anime/manga Naruto or Bleach. This story is just for fun.**

"Speaking"

"_Thinking"_

"**Kyuubi to naruto"**

"_**Mugen to naruto"**_

**((Hollow speak))**

* * *

**Yin-Yang**

* * *

Mugen was annoyed,"**Ape! What did you do?!"**

The underground chamber was filled with clouds of dust and pulverized spirit-repelling stone. Small pea-sized bits of rock fell through the miasma and landed on the ground in a constant pitter-patter rain of debris. The terrible pressure that had existed shortly before was now gone, leaving behind an eerie stillness that hung in the air. Slowly the dust retreated from the edges of the room as the final tremors faded.

The shockwave of reiatsu had rebounded endlessly within the sealed chamber, in the end it left a pattern of spirals on the ground and ceiling that was slowly being revealed as the dust steadily settled. In the centre of the scarred floor there appeared an oddly shaped figure. It emanated a slight trickle of reiatsu and the energy being released from it caused sparks to crackle over its dust enshrouded form. Gradually the air cleared and the figure was revealed to be a large stone fox, slightly bigger than a grown man.

"**You retarded piece of worm-riddled bovine excrement! This is why I didn't want to mess with any seals…arrrghhh!! What's happening? Did you blind yourself, Mr. Retarded piece of worm-riddled bovine excrement?"**

The statue was made from a strange white stone and seemed to have been carved in exacting detail. On closer inspection one could even see the underlying muscles and even individual hairs in the beast's coat of fur. It was to say the least, a true masterpiece, a work of art. For a few moments the stone fox was the only thing left undamaged in the shattered underground bunker. It actually seemed to grin in vulpine delight at that notion.

Then, it cracked in half…

-C-c-c-crrr-

-Crack!-

It split cleanly down the middle, and opened up like some kind of seed pod revealing…

Gyack!

-cough-

A young blonde man dressed in tattered shinigami garb.

"Ugh, air!"

-hah- -hah-

"**Dumb Ape!"**

-hah- _"Don't sweat it! It worked, we're alive! It worked!" _The boy thought in elation as he gazed upon his hand.

Inside her new den within Naruto's Soul Deep, Mugen lounged comfortably within the shrine, absentmindedly re-arranging things while inquiring curiously, **"What exactly did you do?" **

"_Adding a component that combines what passes for sage chakra in this world with our own powers and refines it into a purer form."_ Naruto thought back to Mugen proudly.

"**-and nearly blowing us up!"** The fox finished.

"_-and nearly blowing us up!"_ The shinigami chirped before wincing at Mugen's creative use of invective.

"**Dumbass! What if something had gone wrong?!"** She screamed from within him.

The blonde shinigami stood up, stretching and replied as he scratched the back of his head, "Well we'd have been dead-er than we already are, but wow, what a cool way to go."

As Naruto felt himself move with a new and deadly coiled grace, easily weathering a rock the size of a horse that fell from the ceiling, onto his head and shattered. He decided that Mugen's bitching for the next however many hours was worth it. Gingerly, he tried to take a step… and Frog Leaped, embedding himself in the stone ceiling…

* * *

Learning how to walk in a suddenly very fragile world, while being bitched at by Mugen was almost worth it…

So it was that Yoruichi came across her fukutaichō walking around under the effects of a self-applied **Bakudō #99: Kin**, in addition to his new choice in head gear. She blinked at the sight, not asking any questions, she burt out in laughter.

"…" Naruto grumbled as he shambled back to his office.

"That's f*ck you, _**Sir!**_" The 2nd Division Taichō chuckled as she strolled along unperturbed.

_**And so the years passed and time moved on…**_

"Our orders are to apprehend Yoruichi Taichō!"

_**And time…**_

The forest floor was littered with groaning bodies. Byakuya had fallen under the rogue captain's onslaught and impressive five seconds after she finally stopped holding back. She dealt with her subordinates as if they were children. The covert ops group might not have the same fearsome reputation for battle as some of the other groups, but it took skill to deal with these guys the way that Naruto saw her handling them. Naruto could freely admit that even if the men and women that he worked with were a bunch of sneaky, underhanded, anally-retentive bunch of paranoid pricks, they were at least skillful pricks.

_**And time…**_

Her expression was unreadable as she looked down at her fallen men. It was only a slight widening of her eyes that betrayed her surprise when Naruto attacked, silently, from her blind spot. He in turn whirled about in place keeping his balance even as her gasping body vanished from under his blade.

He wasn't fooled by her use of Utsusemi to evade his attack, unsealing Mugen no Murakumo hadn't been an option when trying to sneak up on his captain so Naruto fully aware that the fight was going to devolve into a battle of Hakuda. This explained why Yoruichi's counter attack a millisecond later passed through his own utsusemi (molting cicada technique).

It felt more than a little nostalgic, their violent struggle harkened back to memories of games of tag, games meant to train them for their duties, when they would be fighting for real, like now. His fingers brushed against the bark of a tree branch swinging under it at high speed. He used a series of flash steps using hōhō to leave behind an afterimage of himself in the split second that he was out of sight.

The clone was quickly engaged by Yoruichi in the midst of their running battle through the trees. Naruto knew that Yoruichi was headed in the direction of the Eastern Senkaimon and he was sticking to her every step of the-.

"_Shit."_

A trio of rod shuriken punched into his chest, causing him to stumble in the midst of his jump. It seemed like both the Yoruichi that had attacked his clone and the one that he had been attempting to out-flank were fakes. The tight bunch of shuriken was really elongated versions of the iron head of a crossbow bolt, designed to punch through a weak hollow's mask. The weapons hadn't caught him in any lethal points, a fact that was more a testament to Yoruichi's skill as an assassin than his own at evasion.

But that didn't matter….

He noted that her amber eyes seemed almost pleased as he again cut her off, this time on the roof of a supply depot ten klicks south-west of the gate, they warily watched each other in slence as Naruto's aftermimage finally vanished midway to the forest floor.

Then things really became fun…

Neither of them unsealed their blades. Their battle techniques contained multiple moves geared toward taking advantage of the resultant shift in the coherence of thought and power when a zanpakutō was being sealed or unsealed. He also didn't want any random shinigami getting in the way of this fight. If a captain was nearby then they'd probably notice anyway but such an outcome didn't seem likely. The movements of captains were restricted in an emergency to their areas of control and the unseated officers were unlikely to be anything more than a hindrance at this level of combat.

They took their game of carefully applied murder/evade down to the street-level. They literally fought around and among a patrol of unseated officers, moving through the men's patrol formation with slashing blades, fists and blurring feet, all the while staying out of the shinigami's field of view. Only the twenty-third seat officer leading them felt that something was awry with the unusually windy street. The man almost got himself killed when he unknowingly put his head in the way of a quickly aborted snap-kick and back-heel that came from two different angles with beheading force.

To be clear, Yoruichi hadn't even begun to go all out, but then neither had he. Belatedly Naruto realized that this was probably a delaying action to buy someone, most likely Urahara and the other fugitives, time to escape. The seated officer in the fading distance finally noticed his bleeding ears when Naruto decided to pull out all the stops.

Upside down in mid-air, while fending off an axe kick, parrying a zanpakutō and trying to keep his eye on the real Yoruichi out of twelve after-images, he pulled out one of the pins binding the sealing cloth to his body. He continued doing so unitil there were a score of them between his fingers, fighting all the while. Then as they dove into another alley, in a twist that hid the motion of his free hand, Naruto lashed out with a kick while he tried to put those pins into the side of her neck. It didn't work but the new distraction bought him enough time to murmur, "**Hadō #63: Raikōhō."**

Near point blank, hemmed in by artfully thrown makeshift senbon, after images and buildings, the kidō caught Yoruichi square on before the amazed eyes of the two hundred and fifty patrol corpsmen ordered by Naruto to stand guard at each of the Senkaimon Gates. It was the most beautiful thing Naruto ever saw for as the lightning faded, Yoruichi stood before him in the sōshireikan's battledress, sheathed in lightning of her own.

There is a saying about having a silence so profound that one could hear a pin drop…

-plink-

The sealing cloth fell away as the last of the pins were removed. Instantly, ever-thickening flows of wind spiritrons began to gather about Naruto's body as his steely blue met amazed amber.

"You…" The purple-haired shinigami started to say something but then stopped herself and simply smiled instead.

Naruto almost dropped his guard at the sight, but tensed, ready for anything…

"**Shunkō."**

Except for having Yoruichi try to obliterate her former subordinates... Desperately he flash stepped before the startled shinigami and held his arms out wide, palms facing forward, glowing with an intense blue-white light.

"Hanki."

It was a technique that he had only thought about in passing, A Hakuda combat maneuver that called for providing equal force in the opposite direction and rotation of an attack in order to cancel it. He applied this half-forgotten knowledge instinctively to the massive wave of power bearing down on him. The crackling lightning burned away at his torso and arms, shredding away the remainder of his sleeves and the clothing on his upper back. In the corner of one eye, Naruto could see Yoruichi's shadowy form escape through the closing gate, he couldn't do anything to stop her at the moment. Instead Naruto just grit his teeth and heaved the fading power up into the air, where it spiraled before exploding in a brilliant flash.

For a moment he just stood there as the stunned corpsmen and 2nd Division shinigami guard looked on. His steaming arms were bare, revealing muscular shoulders as residual lightning sparked across his equally bare back. He turned to look at the shinigami that he had shielded and they gazed in awe at his faintly glowing form. The lightning had burned away the cloth veil and straw that had been woven onto the lead shield he had been using for a hat.

In the shadows of his hat, glowing blue eyes stared back at his comrades.

As one, they kneeled, and stayed kneeling even as he collapsed in exhaustion.

_**And time, moved on….**_

* * *

He awoke.

He did not move .

He did not open his eyes.

He kept the pulse of his reiatsu constant.

And he listened...

"-mess, fifty of them injured including the new captain..."

"The new captain?" The voice of a healer questioned in the corridor outside his room.

"Beat her in front of two hundred witnesses from their division, she got away, but he saved them from some kind of super-kidō."

"Uwaahh! I think I saw that from the barracks! That big dragon that went up into the sky?!"

"Heh, well I hear Central Forty-Six want's to question him but its been pretty much been confirmed that Captain Shihōin is gonna take command of the 2nd when he recovers fully."

"Ehh! What about the others?"

"Dunno but they say that Aizen is gonna try for the Fifth Divis-"

"Please, lets not gossip in the halls, we have patients to care for and they need their rest. _Disturbing them just won't do, **right**_?"

"H-hai Taichō"

"Get some rest..."

"Hai!"

"I wasn't talking to you two."

"...?"

* * *

**AN: I'm cleaning up this story and retouching it before I write more.**


	14. Chapter 14

**His life has come to an end yet he continues on surpassing death itself. Taken in by a noble clan what destiny lies before him? Unknowing of his fate he continues on to a destined meeting. Naruto's fate as a member of the Shihoin Clan hangs in the balance! His greatest bane is now his ally?! A mystery looms about Naruto. Just what has he forgotten? And having remembered he proceeds into an uncertain future. Steeped in darkness what bloody path does he walk. And where he goes the winged lord soars. Onward, upward to where the shinigami demon cat awaits. His path leads to her side. His powers begin to flourish. And time, Moves on... **

**I do not own or profit from the anime/manga Naruto or Bleach. This story is just for fun.**

"Speaking"

"_Thinking"_

"**Kyuubi to naruto"**

"_**Mugen to naruto"**_

**((Hollow speak))**

**

* * *

****Namikaze**

_

* * *

_

_Attempt number five hundred and ninety-seven, the window was scant millimeters away when a sweet voice called out gently._

"Sho!"

-Whump-

_Ghurk!_

It was a full two weeks later before Naruto was allowed to leave the hospital ward controlled by the 4th Division….

"… and I won't ask why you needed to use a level 90 Bakudō on yourself Naruto-kun after all we all need hobbies though I recommend that you limit your corporal mortification to whipping for the rest of the month.:

"Bu-"

"I know that a masochist like yourself might find such a thing bland, perhaps what you need is to find a true sadist to take care of you, hmm?"

-whisper-

-whisper-

"Oi! I'm not a-"

"But if you insist on causing this much damage to your body again why I might just have to revisit that immobilization idea until a full psychological workup is done. That of course means that we'll be using the catheter instead of a bedpan, and of course… _Diapers_… fufufu…"Retsu hadn't signed the release papers yet.

"…you're… getting off on this aren't you Retsu-onee-chan…"

"…I have no idea what you mean …Now I just need to run one last test, I suppose the recruits could use the practice drawing blood, your veins are so hard to see Naruto-kun."

"…sadist…"

"Fufufu…"

And there was no point running away, the woman wouldn't bat an eye at using kidō to subdue him, she just think of something more unpleasant to do.

A month had passed since the incident that led to the loss of six captains including the former onmitskidō commander and the kidō corps leader. Added to the that the loss of four vice-captain level soul reapers and the Gotei Thirteen was desperate for new talent to fill out its ranks, so much so that the baying calls of central forty-six for an audit of the activities of the executive militia had been silenced adroitly by Haruka who was milking Naruto's unasked for fame for all that it was worth.

After a closely supervised but nonetheless intense interview before the Sô-Taichō Yamamoto Shigekuni Genryusai, Naruto had been informed that his status as leader of the Second Division was confirmed. There hadn't been any mention of a further evaluation, he'd done his time in the academy and it was an open secret that the Shihoin clan had been grooming him for a position in the stealth forces. Once the old man was satisfied that he wouldn't need to reduce Naruto to crispy bits, the new captain had been thrown to the lions so to speak.

They'd promoted a kid, barely fifty years old and with an immature power to boot, to the position of vice-captain. The situation was literally that bad, Aizen had taken the fifth, and the others were still open wounds in the Gotei Thirteen and the predators were circling. Opinions on the Shihoin clan were mixed. Although adopted, Naruto's status as the new captain of the 2nd Division meant that the effects of Yoruichi's disgrace was not felt as keenly as they would have otherwise. What Haruka, and Yoruichi's trainer and personal retainers felt regarding her alleged betrayal was unknown Naruto himself maintained silent on the matter presenting only a stoic front to the more hostile, and thus moronic, members of the other divisions who felt that the Shihoin and the 2nd Division as a whole could not be trusted.

Given that Central 46 and several rival houses were among the privately labeled morons Naruto's silence was perhaps a wise measure…

* * *

The quarantine of the 2nd Division ended with Naruto's return to the barracks and the few stragglers from the first and thirteenth were sent packing with a single glare from the captain who was swiftly making a name for himself quite without meaning to. Although she had been officially a traitor, in the eyes of his comrades Naruto hadn't hesitated even once in trying to take her down from the moment the order came in. There were well over two hundred witnesses to that fact which was probably the only reason why he hadn't been condemned to the maggot's nest.

On the other hand people were starting to think of the new 2nd Division head as being a ruthless man. She may have been a traitor, but Yoruichi was practically his older sister, or to hear some speak of it, his lover. His stony silence only added to the image.

The entire 2nd Division was arrayed in the courtyard when he entered through the gate, both the uniformed punishment corps as well as the hooded and masked onmitskidō groups. Strangely enough there was a group that had started wearing the veiled hats and sleeveless black flak jackets that Naruto was favoring of late.

He held his silence as he walked between the rows of men and women feeling their eyes upon his back. He walked up the steps to stand on the foyer of the headquarters and turned to face them. His silence had served to give him time to gather his thoughts. These were not people to be taken lightly, Yoruichi might have seemed an easy-going mistress but she had earned her way to the top in blood, sweat and tears, mostly her enemy's.

But then, so had he...

Naruto came to that quiet realization as he stood there wondering what to tell his people; suddenly, knew just what to say.

"Approximately three weeks ago former twelfth division captain Urahara Kisuke and former Kidō corps leader Tessai were discovered to have in their custody the mutated bodies of former Captains Hirako Shinji...

… I know not what was going through Yoruichi-san's mind when she interrupted the deliberations of Central 46 and liberated prisoners from under her division's own guard and I care not to speculate. Such thoughts are irrelevant to our duty. More than half the strength of Gotei Thirteen has been lost to betrayal and death, although measures have been taken to mitigate the full impact of this tragedy, it falls to all of us to see Soul Society through this difficult time." Naruto paused in his speech for a moment raking his eyes across the assembled personnel, none of whom flinched away from his gaze.

"These coming days will be difficult for us as well it bodes ill to be distrusted by ones comrades…" There was a slight tension in the air as he said this. "I trust you," He finished simply. "I trust in all of you who have given of yourselves time and again for the safety and security of Soul Society, you who bear this duty gladly, and I who will lead you, Shihoin Naruto! Fall Out!"

There was nothing so unprofessional as a cheer, the thunderous, _"Ossu!"_ that preceded the divisions dispersal of ranks held a fresh note to it that hadn't been in the atmosphere when he'd begun speaking minutes before.

Naruto was almost to the door of the vice-captain's office when a reedy voice at his elbow stopped him at the same time as a hand gripped his arm.

"Wrong door, _S__ôshireikan_"

There were only two things that saved Kotengu from a beating, first of all there was the fact that it was already embarrassing enough to be caught off-guard, the man's grip on his arm ensured that Naruto would dislocate his own elbow if he tried to vent his self-disgust at being snuck up on, on the diminutive man. Naruto didn't want to go anywhere near Unohana-The-Sadist-Retsu so soon again if he could avoid it.

Secondly, he'd just been told some important news. The position of 2nd Division Captain was important only to outsiders as a promotion it meant that he was in charge of guarding places, running a messenger service and escorting prisoners from point A to point B. In essence, he was a gopher and until Kotengu's announcement, the front-man for whoever to command of the stealth corps.

It seemed that he'd been promoted to an even more important position than captain, at least in the eyes of the onmitskidô.

Now he was his own front-man, joy…

"I hope you're not going to make a habit of sticking yer head in the clouds, Naruto." The older shinigami scolded as they entered the correct room. "I've kept most of the old guard, that girlie's gonna be yer second _Commander_. At least, once you straighten her out." Kotengu grunted, in the backroom attached to the office, which served as the Captain's quarters came a forlorn cry of _"Yoruichi-sama, why!"_

Naruto rubbed the bridge of his nose feeling a presentiment of the headache that was coming. Seeing his look Kotengu growled, "Little twit's been like that for nearly the whole time you've been gone, girl's got potential, a good lineage, enough talent to be your second in command and loyal to a fault. You just gotta get her head clear."

"How the heck am I going to do that?" Naruto groaned.

"Not my problem, I'm just here to make sure yer up to speed on the reports from Special Tactics and fit for duty, speaking of which, sometime in the next twenty minutes I'm gonna stab you in a non-vital area, and keep doing so until you either learn to keep ya guard up or bleed to death." Naruto's old trainer ground out.

_Great… first Soifon now- OW!_

"I can keep this up all day, now _stay sharp!_"

"Ow! Alright damn it, you old goat!"

Dealing with Soifon had been easy after an impromptu training session with Kotengu, mostly because he'd been too tired from kicking the old man's ass to give a damn. He walked into the room, walked back out to get a pail of water because of the smell and a few minutes later was dragging a wet, bedraggled shinigami into the front court.

"Let me go damn you!" Soifon should have been able to break his hold on her and his arm as well if she hadn't been so distraught.

"Do you think you can just mope around in your room like a shut-in while the division goes to hell?" He barked back. "Where were you when your subordinates needed a leader?" He shook her so hard that her head snapped from side to side. "Get cleaned up soldier or get lost, but if you come before me in this sorry state again I will beat your ass like a drum. _Believe it!_"

Then he booted her in the rear for good measure, sending the elfin girl tumbling end over end down the short stairs as he went back air out his room.

A day later, a much changed Soifon was standing before the new Stealth Forces commander. Soifon had cleaned herself up and reported for duty clear eyed and ready to take on the world with or without Yoruichi-sama. Naruto congratulated himself on a job well done.

The challenges started like clockwork a few days later. Kotengu was right, all Soifon needed was something to focus on and she'd be an excellent second in command. What he didn't say and probably what the bastard had intended all along was that Soifon's new goal in life was to prove herself greater that Yoruichi. Preferably by killing the only person known to have ever bested her in any battle, in other words Naruto, and prying away command of the 2nd Division and stealth forces from his cold dead fingers.

What the girl lacked in brute power, she more than made up for with her finesse for hakuda and a steadily increasing skill in using her zanpakutō's initial release state. Naruto's days were thus filled with paperwork, interspersed with brief brushes with death, punctuated by boring, hours-long meetings with the General Commander and Captains. Slowly, over time, Naruto's skill at surviving each challenge began to grow. Kotengu actually shed a tear in joy.

* * *

Two months after Naruto took control of the onmitskidô a group of twelve men and women, met to finalize their plans to take control of Soul Society and set one of their number as ruler. They had been waiting, hidden in secret for years hoping for the chance that they knew would one day come, when the Gotei Thirteen inevitably faltered in its iron grip over the forces of heaven.

The next morning, all twelve individuals had perished. A further sixty-four individuals, ranging from an unseated officer in the 1st division to an attendant to one of the judges of Central 46 died in the same abrupt manner, their bodies and clothes disintegrating completely into spirit particles, in at least one case, it happened while the victim was being embraced and in the throes of passion. The witness could not state that it was anything related to foul play.

There was a small flurry of concern before the matter was silenced. Those in the know understood why it had happened, if not how.

Naruto stood waist deep in the middle of a pool, there was a short waterfall before him. He gently placed Mugen's Dao form against the rushing water and quietly intoned. "Namikaze."

The waterfall split in half… as did the river.

Kotengu grunted from his vantage point on a rock in the middle of the river, also cut in half, he looked over his shoulder at the curve of the ravine that the river flowed around. A few tons of solid rock and shale, slid into the water, damming the river. The man peered up into the sky where a cloud slowly dissipated in two disjointed sections.

"I hope you meant to do that." The man muttered.

Naruto shrugged. "Before I was primarily a wind-type but now that my powers have settled, Mugen no Murakumo is proving to be more of a wind and water type. Water will still change its form, but is incompressible under pressure and can be sharpened by the wind.

Kotengu picked up the bit of his hat that had been sheared off when the wave of mist had rushed past him. He looked at Naruto.

The Captain rubbed the back of his neck, "Still a work in progress…"

The other man said nothing for a while, "I can see why yer hold back from releasing yer blade against the girlie. Get control of that technique down to the same level as Kazekiri." He hopped off the rock and onto the bank. "And Naruto, that other skill… you did good work, not even Unohana could say that it was anything other than a series of natural if unusually timed deaths."

Kotengu looked off into the distance for a while.

"But Naruto, that sort of skill…" He started to say then stopped and looked at Naruto piercingly, "Don't use it too often around other, people…." He paused again, searching for the right word. "People do strange things when they're afraid." He finished simply before walking away.

In a certain inner world a fox smiled. _**"They do indeed…"**_

* * *

**_AN: Thanks for the continued interest, I do read the reviews. TTFN_**


	15. Chapter 15

****

His life has come to an end yet he continues on surpassing death itself. Taken in by a noble clan what destiny lies before him? Unknowing of his fate he continues on to a destined meeting. Naruto's fate as a member of the Shihoin Clan hangs in the balance! His greatest bane is now his ally? A mystery looms about Naruto. Just what has he forgotten? And having remembered he proceeds into an uncertain future. Steeped in darkness what bloody path does he walk. And where he goes the winged lord soars. Onward, upward to where the shinigami demon cat awaits. His path leads to her side. His powers begin to flourish. And time, Moves on... What dangers loom in the future?

* * *

**I do not own or profit from the anime/manga Naruto or Bleach. This story is just for fun.**

"Speaking"

"_Thinking"_

"**Kyuubi to naruto"**

"_**Mugen to naruto"**_

**((Hollow speak))**

**

* * *

**

**Nagare**

* * *

**Japan, Forty Years Later**

* * *

-Clang!

Swords clashed. They flashed as two combatants fought in a darkened alley.

One was a shinigami, black clothed with half his shaved scalp tattooed. A thug, from the looks of the yakuza style markings that continued down his neck and under his collar. His ink-covered arms burned from exhaustion, sweat poured down his back, slickened his palms and ran down his cheeks in rivulets.

-Ching!

Another blow struck and parried. He didn't know what happened to the geeks his team was guarding and he didn't care… His team was gone, that he knew. He cared about losing his men, some of them owed him money some were good drinking buddies the kind that always had your back. He cared most especially because their killers were watching from above, a fact that all but guaranteed his end. They were toying with him, he realized.

A feint from his opponent very nearly caused him to lose an eye as the man's double bladed sword swept in a backhanded cut. The blow was well balanced the shinigami's opponent weaved backward, setting himself up for a double-handed counter, leaving no time for a riposte. The sloppily executed kaeshi maneuver failed as blood leaked into his left eye from the shallow but fiercely bleeding cut above it.

"_Damn," _He thought, _"This was bad, this was very bad." _

His pride as a member of the Eleventh Division was on the line but there was nothing he could do. Almost negligently his opponent turned aside his zanpakutō, feinted high and thrust low. He stepped back rapidly in an attempt to avoid his comrade's fates, already planning a counter-attack.

_Like fuck he wasn't going to die like a punk!_

But he couldn't avoid the attack when it came, the blurred shape of his opponent's sword elongated and the head of the weapon slid between his ribs, parting flesh, spearing his beating heart.

-Guhh!

Blood dribbling between his lips, the twelth seat of the Eleventh Division, Mochizuki Gorou, looked his killer in the eyes, spat a single well-aimed glob and...

mouthed, _"Fuck you!"_

The shinigami collapsed dead.

The aggressor was standing in the shadow of a tall building, the fading form of the dead shinigami at his feet near the mouth of an alley. He wasn't concerned about being interrupted for even though this battle had hardly been quiet, none of the pedestrians nearby were spiritually aware enough to notice the phantom duel. In the darkness of that dingy alleyway a man's voice then spoke, nonchalant about the death god's murder, "Well," the speaker said, calmly wiping his face, "We'll need to speed up our work a little. We need to find it soon, before Soul Society becomes aware of our actions."

"Hai!" chorused five voices. Shadows stood atop the ledges that overlooked the scene of the execution. A sixth figure, obscured by a long, flowing cape joined them soon after. Platinum-blond strands of hair waved gently about in the night wind coming in from the nearby sea.

"We need to find it soon," The killer muttered as the bloody spear in his hand shrunk and then vanished in a burst of power, "And when we do, our millennium of suffering, _avenged_… "

* * *

Not many people now-a-days knew exactly what the captain of Second Division looked like. To most, Soifon was the visible head of the shinigami Second Division and Onmitsukido. Some of the newer peasant members of of 1st District even believed _her_ to be the leader of Second Division, having never _even heard_ of Shihoin Naruto. Control of information was one of the things that benefitted from the instincts Naruto's Special Forces training had brought to the fore and polished till it shone like a diamond.

Like his instinctive grasp of the tactics used by the Onmitsukido, both tactical and strategic, it was one of the many things about Naruto that had caused his advocates within the Shihoin Clan to sit up and pay attention. Initially, his only true worth had been in resolving the furor being raised in some quarters over the Heir being female. Now Haruka all but ran the clan in light of Yoroichi's AWOL status.

While some had seen him as a playmate for Yoroichi and perhaps a means to breed a new heir, this was more the wishful thinking of a few traditionalists rather than the plan of action. Only Yoroichi would have decided that, anyone who thought otherwise was plainly delusional. Haruka's intent had been to raise a loyal soldier and servant for her clan leader, someone unobtrusive, to quietly support her even if likely only in spirit given the girl's martial prowess. But now Yoroichi was gone and in her absence Naruto had inadvertently become something much more than intended.

People called him Shihoin-sama and bowed. The state of disgrace the clan may have fallen into was averted by his existence and strength. He was respected by the younger generation and viewed with suspicion by those who found that their tool, to either wrest control of the clan from a woman's hands or keep it in those hands, was now a figure of power and authority in his own right and fully capable of just taking the leadership for himself.

Soifon hadn't been the only challenger after his position and life, just the only one who wanted the captaincy for 'pure' reasons. Ironically the woman had now become his staunchest guardian- if only to prevent someone from taking the 'title' of strongest from him before she could. She and that third seat Mrechiyo Ōmaeda fulfilled most public functions on his behalf while he spent his time taken with Jinzen training; sorting and assigning higher ranking missions in his office; and attending the monthly meetings with the other Captains, really the only time he showed himself openly.

It was all very neat and tidy. In exchange for a driven lieutenant who terrified his troops into one of the most disciplined division and handled most of the mundane details like paperwork and assassins, all he had to do was indulge in a bi-monthly sparring session and pretend that he didn't notice that Soifon had achieved Bankai. His soldiers were devoted to their kind and wise leader who saved from the clutches of a tyrannical lieutenant and displayed his superiority in their combat training sessions. All Naruto had to do was be the one to deliver the good news during briefings, passively take credit for good ideas that weren't entirely his own; and… well, survive.

And he was getting good at surviving.

Not that he had been getting lazy despite his new habit of spending hours at a time in Jinzen with Mugen no Murakumo. If for no other reason than that Kotengu would kill him…

No, this was again an example of some faint impression from his frustratingly forgotten past, forming the nucleus about which another facet of his training was beginning to crystallize. He dimly remembered Haruka telling him that sensing and controlling reiryoku could be compared to moving ripples on the surface of a pond. On a hunch, he and Mugen no Murakumo had begun experimenting in manipulating their reiryoku in ways beyond simply gathering massive amounts of energy for Shunkō.

Working together, the three entities had expanded on the analogy. The pond became an ocean, reiryoku the water in it and reiatsu became the waves, over the surface and the currents beneath.

It was this last analogy that had been the true gem.

Naruto's quiet nature hadn't made him any allies among the other Captains, old and new. It hadn't made him any obvious enemies either. The two possible exceptions to this was Retsu Unohana who treated everyone with polite elegance (and subtle intimidation) and Zaraki Kenpachi who had been angling for a duel from practically the day they'd first met in the Captain's meeting hall.

In both cases his new training had born fruit. He'd gone back to the basics with Kotengu, stealth training one-oh-one. But the focus this time wasn't on suppressing his reiatsu and staying out of sight, he'd applied a new interpretation to the analogy of currents, inspired by the nagging feeling that told him there was something there. Days of evading Kenpachi and trying to sneak past a bemused Unohana helped to refine the skill by identifying what didn't work until at last he'd made a breakthrough.

He began to master the art of stillness and motion.

And his hakuda _exploded_.

When Soifon perfected her Shikai and told him to take her seriously, he took her down with his bare hands in mere seconds.

Of course, this was when Kotengu decided that he needed to begin including his personal guard in their daily training sessions, _to get them up to speed_. All fifty of them…

This was why, when the summons came for an emergency meeting, he kept very still as the eleventh Division captain stampeded by. Someone, somewhere along the line, most likely the old man; had attempted to teach Kenpachi stealth. Yamamoto must have had the patience of a mountain to get as far as he did with the man. When in combat Kenpachi did little to restrain his aura, which loomed over the battlefield like a rampaging Daikaiju over a burning city.

Restrained was a relative term for Kenpachi who depended more on speed and battle-hardened instinct than stealth. Trying not to piss the Captain-Commander off resulted in a muted cloud of bloodlust that to someone like Naruto demoted Kepachi from rampaging Daikaiju to maddened bull in a china shop. It was a grating sensation akin to having a madman with a knife pass next to you muttering about his latest victim to be, except you could actually feel Kenpachi searching unconsciously through the auras of those around him. His reiatsu, muted as it was, was testing the waters, pushing against those around the Eleventh Division Captain. It came into contact with Naruto and passed over him without much thought.

Naruto's training allowed him to blend with the natural reiatsu generated in the background, it gave him an aura that to Kenpachi signaled, '_Harmless Woodland Creature Here_'

Alert to challenges and threats, Zaraki swept past the oddly dressed Second Division captain without a second thought. He simply didn't bother with the low level shinigami that his senses told him was standing there. Naruto stayed just beyond the edge of the man's awareness, it was one of the first things that he'd mastered, following the currents of awareness and staying so still that you blended in with the background seamlessly.

And this was just the basics.

**

* * *

**

The meeting was just boring, which was a good thing. The last time things had gotten interesting was when his people had been teamed up with the Eleventh Division and sent to exterminate a hollow infestation in West District Eighty of Rugongai.

_That_ had been an utter disaster. Ignoring any attempts by Soifon to impose order or plan beyond '_Attack!_' Two entire squads of the Eleventh had charged right into a nest of centipede-like hollows and gotten slaughtered. Soifon, as she had been trained, didn't intervene until much later. She left the hot heads alone and had her people gather information on the creatures' types and abilities. When the existence of the Hollow leading them was confirmed she'd simply mopped up the stragglers on the outer edges of the battlefield and called her captain in to deal with it.

On one hand, the fact his lieutenant hadn't interfered with the battles of Zaraki's subordinates had ironically won Soifon favor with the Eleventh. On the other hand, Kenpachi had been pissed over missing out on the fight, receiving the summons from a jigokuchō sent by his third seat and arriving only to see Naruto restrain and destroy the Daikaiju-Hollow with a combination of two multi-cast, incantationless level ninety bakudō and a level eighty hadō.

Naruto caught flak from his colleagues for the two details he had no control over. Leaving Kenpachi's battle junkies to die; and ending the fight before Kenpachi could take part.

It wasn't Aizen's insinuation that he could have done more that got his goat. The Captain-Commander agreed with Soifon's actions, which were standard doctrine no matter what Shunsui and Ukitake thought of it. What annoyed Naruto was that rather than raise issue with the callous sacrifice of his subordinates, Zaraki had instead demanded a duel- _'With swords, not sissy magic.'_ –and attacked Naruto upon his refusal; _in the middle of the ongoing battle!_

The end result was a three hour lecture on the importance of cooperation from the Sōtaichō.

Shihoin Naruto couldn't say that he hated Kenpachi, as the Ninth Division Captain seemed to, but he didn't trust someone who put the pursuit of fun over the security of the mission and even the safety of his men. To Naruto, Kenpachi was _trash_.

A nod from the Captain-Commander was the signal to stay behind when the others left. Only after the meeting ended did Soifon join him from where she had eavesdropping outside. As they followed the Captain-Commander from the meeting hall to his office located elsewhere in the First Division barracks Naruto went over any reports that he might have seen that could shed light on why he'd been asked to remain. A head-shake from Soifon told him that she didn't have a clue either.

He felt Mayuri before he saw him.

Another facet of his training in reading the currents of reiatsu was that he had gained an insight into the natures of his fellow Captains. It was a sense that grew more precise the longer he practiced it and he had honed this ability using Unohana as an unknowing guinea pig. To him the woman felt like elegance personified, genuine elegance; and in a strangely contradictive way hot-blooded. It gave Naruto the impression of an old warrior who through long practice had attained an unflappable inner peace over well earned battle instincts.

Mayuri, on the other hand, was just a sicko. His reiatsu was an oily, unnatural presence that left Naruto feeling like he had just stepped in something unpleasant. This sensation was only reinforced by the extensive amount of body modification that the man put himself through. Honestly, who needed radio transceiver ear replacements that doubled as Kusarigama?

Fortunately he had several seconds to get used to the idea of being in the same room as the man. Soifon, who well remembered the Twelfth Division Captain's stay in the Maggot's Nest back in the day and why he was put there, schooled her face very carefully so as to not show the disdain that Naruto knew she must have been feeling. It wouldn't be polite. While the shinigami cared little for Captain Kurotsuchi it would have been an insult to the Captain-Commander whom she very much did respect.

"Ah!" Mayuri said in his typically nasally voice. "You're finally here. It-"

Naruto ignored him.

"Captain-Commander, you wished to see me?" He said to the old shingami. Off to one side, Mayuri steamed visibly.

"Hmm, yes," The Captain of the First Division grunted, "A team of Twelfth Division researchers missed their last three scheduled check in times, local shinigami, part of the Thirteenth Division's patrol delegated to the Kanto region reported sensing a battle from their last recorded location."

"Sir?" Naruto hadn't yet heard a proper reason for why he was being told about, what at the moment, seemed like a purely internal affair of the Twelfth Division. Mayuri wasn't the type to ask for help and Naruto knew enough about the other man's borderline illegal practices to gladly watch the former convict hang from a noose of his own making.

"They were accompanied by a squad provided by the Eleventh Division, upon reconnaissance by my people, it was determined that both groups were completely annihilated." Kurotsuchi interjected. "Residual traces indicated the use of bladed weapons and small amounts of shinigami reiryoku was found. The Eleventh Division then took over the investigation."

Naruto winced, normally the Tenth Division would have been delegated the task of conducting a field investigation, or the Thirteenth. With the Eleventh insisting on being in charge of searching out the culprits the likely-hood of success was low; but given that they had been the ones to lose people, Yamamoto wouldn't have refused the request. Furthermore; anything that could take out those battle junkies before the Twelfth's researchers could call in for help was not something you wanted on the loose. So the Eleventh was going to be tasked with the eventual extermination of the assailant or assailants and Yamamoto needed real trackers who could work around that boisterous mob.

Seeing the dawning understanding on his face, Yamamoto made the order, "The Second Division is tasked with aiding the Eleventh Division in finding the perpetrators of this attack." He said.

Naruto acknowledged his orders with a bow and turned to Mayuri, "We'll find out what happened to your people and avenge them." He promised.

"Huh? What? Er- yes, yes, but I'd much rather you locate their equipment." Mayuri stated, callously dismissing the deaths of his subordinates, "They were gathering some interesting data on changes within the Dangai Precipice world. The recording devices weren't found at the site, recover them if you can," He continued as if _giving Naruto_ a mission in his imperious, nasally voice, "It could be more important than you understand!"

Naruto kept his peace and nodded, "I'll keep that in mind," He said neutrally, and he did, the fact that the equipment was taken could be important but he did understand more than Kurotsuchi thought. The man hadn't really cared a whit about his subordinates' fate or finding their killer beyond his own interests.

"_Mayuri,_" Naruto mused as he exited the Captain-Commander's office with Soifon in tow, walking past the blank faced lieutenant of the Twelfth Division, he spared the girl nary a glance.

"_Mayuri i__s less than trash." _

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**AN: Good to see people still interested in this story, I've been quietly slogging along when I have the time. Having encouragement from readers was actually vital to this chapter coming out. The page editor on the site is giving me grief again, randomly deleting portions of the story. TTFN.**


	16. Chapter 16

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His life has come to an end yet he continues on surpassing death itself. Taken in by a noble clan what destiny lies before him? Unknowing of his fate he continues on to a destined meeting. Naruto's fate as a member of the Shihoin Clan hangs in the balance! His greatest bane is now his ally? A mystery looms about Naruto. Just what has he forgotten? And having remembered he proceeds into an uncertain future. Steeped in darkness what bloody path does he walk. And where he goes the winged lord soars. Onward, upward to where the shinigami demon cat awaits. His path leads to her side. His powers begin to flourish. And time, Moves on... What dangers loom in the future?

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I do not own or profit from the anime/manga Naruto or Bleach. This story is just for fun.

"Speaking"

"_Thinking"_

"**Kyuubi to naruto"**

"_**Mugen to naruto"**_

**((Hollow speak))**

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**Battle, Night**

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Kenpachi paused, he looked around, sure that he'd sensed something...

Nope. All that he could sense was some harmless woodland animals. Shrugging, he looked down at the Second Division lieutenant before him and grunted, "Fine," He said, "As long as you spooks stay outta my way, you can look around all you like, just let us know if you find anything." The Eleventh Division captain could have phrased it better, his words were brash and manner impolite but you had to _have_ expectations to be disappointed.

Soifon nodded obediently, "Yes sir," She said. Her head was bowed and she was pointedly ignoring her opposite number, Yachiru, from the Eleventh as the little girl shamelessly tormented a young fox by grabbing the animal's tail and holding on in spite of the creature's cries of protest. "Hmph! Yachiru c'mon let's get going!" The imposing captain called.

The pink-haired lieutenant let go of the fox which swiftly sprinted for the woods not looking back. "OK!" She called exuberantly, leaping onto Kenpachi's shoulder in a single bound. "Bye-bye Squint-Face! Bye-bye Foxy-kun…" Her voice trailed off as Kenpachi raced off… toward Mount Hakone, in roughly a direct path away from where the murders had occurred at a port city near Sagami Bay.

Soifon shrugged, who was she to argue when someone made her job easier, speaking of which…

"You can come out now, sir." She called drily.

Walking out from behind a tree, rubbing at his sore tailbone was her captain, Uzumaki Naruto.

Although she would never admit it to anyone, he was the best thing to have happened to the Second Division, after Yoruichi-sama of course. For those who lived within Seireitei, duty was a fact of life. The so called Noble Families held their position by virtue of a tradition of service to the Shinigami. To leave active service for permanent retirement meant sealing ones power unless joining Central 46 which was in itself another type of service. The misfits that couldn't or wouldn't agree to serve were remanded to the Maggot's Nest until a use for them was found. And those who had not earned retirement, were unwanted by the Gotei Thirteen, yet could and would serve?

They were given to the Onmitsukidō.

Usually they were the children of nobility or former shinigami who wished to serve. The latter sought to serve with honor, the former sought honor in service. Most were promoted and quickly snatched up by the other divisions, especially the First, the few that weren't were the slackers looking for a free ride.

Those Soifon dealt with personally.

The Onmitsukidō had a reputation for performing its duties no matter the cost. This was different per say from, being strong or skilled, which many members were but for the most part they were simply ruthless. Very, very, _very_ ruthless. The Special Forces did not believe in fighting fair, could not when on average, many of their members were the rejects of the Shinigami academy or rich pretty boys who couldn't hack it and whined as Soifon ground them between her merciless training and their honor. They died or turned into diamonds that were snatched up by the other divisions but they always completed their mission.

Most died.

That was the fact of life until Shihoin Naruto came along, with his ridiculous hat and obscuring scarf. He didn't change their traditions, he didn't even try to. What he did do was shake their fatalistic training around and turn the whole notion behind it, on its head. They didn't stop sending out the weakling in groups to survive or die, it was just that more and more of them kept surviving. Group tactics was a well established tactic but cross-training hakuda-specialists as field medics, establishing ambush and forward intelligence squads within the patrol corps, adding torture and interrogation units to the punishment corps, shuffling the executive militia around until each person had fought or trained beside her captain at least twice and then his _knowing_ of who worked well with whom, even when she thought Naruto crazy for partnering her with Marechiyo.

And somehow they kept surviving.

"The tail," The blond shinigami whined piteously, "Why always the tail. That girl! Every time! She goes after the tail."

"You think she knows?" Soifon asked, looking amused.

Naruto stopped short, looking contemplative, then he said, "Nah, she would have told Kenpachi if she realized," He rubbed at his sore back, "Though she probably can tell it's the same fox."

And just like that, her captain went back to the quiet professional that was his public persona.

"Report!" He commanded.

So what if that voice stiffened her nipples just a bit? Well, he still had nothing on Yoruichi-sama. Or so she told herself.

So what if she thrust out her chest a little as she gave her report to her captain…

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**Hakone Shrine**

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The priest shivered, looked at the piece of paper in his hand and shivered again. It was time to do another purification ritual apparently. A foul wind cast the strip of paper away from him, on it was written:

_STUPIDLY, UNREASONABLY, RIDICULUSLY BAD LUCK!_

Kenpachi paused, he looked around. He was feeling kinda was lost.

"Neh, Yachiru," He said, with no real heat to his lieutenant. Yachiru was a diminutive girl with bugglegum pink hair, she was at the moment perched on his shoulder avidly watching a strip of paper float by. "Yachiru… Where the hell are we?" He growled, "I thought you said the strong guys were around here?"

Yachiru however, was too busy watching a zero fighter fly over the bay. In doing so her eyes fell upon a train trundling along in the distance, puffing out plumes of black smoke as it moved away from the seaport. Tugging at Kenpachi's hair excitedly she pointed at the machine saying, "Yatta! Ken-chan, that way!"

Kenpachi didn't see anything but started running down the mountain all the same, startling a few monks along the way down Mt. Hakone with the wind of his passage and lingering bloodlust.

"Heh, I hope they're strong!" He grunted.

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**In a totally different direction… **

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It had been a long time since she'd ventured into the Human World. The area reminded her greatly of another place. There across the street was a bank, all polished marble and concrete. Men dressed in fine cotton suits; ties and shoes polished to a shine by the elderly woman at the corner, walked in and out, some were fair-haired foreigners, some the local Japanese businessmen.

The scene could have been from any affluent European or American street. A line of expensive cars parked along the road, an Auburn Cabriolet, a Speedster and a Rolls Royce among them with the drivers waiting next to them, reading the papers, learning about the newly elected German Chancellor.

She flash-stepped to a rooftop a few blocks away and watched as the wealthy compounds and town houses expanded in one way while in the direction of the docks and elsewhere, things grew more cramped, smaller homes, warehouses, wooden shacks stacked back to back, and a sea of humans, cursing men driving rickshaws, wagon masters carting loads of crates bearing goods from the port cursing right back.

She looked over at the mish-mash of rooftops, painted orange and green; the telegraph wires, water towers, flyers, and trees.

It reminded her of… Where?

Shaking her head, Sakura moved on.

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The constables manhandled the raving engineer into the back of the truck. A burly orderly assured them that it was an obvious case of dementia.

"A Pink Devil riding a Demon I tell you! A Demon!"

They were lucky that he hadn't started this episode until after arriving at the station. The man simply stepped off, calmly walked up to the Stationmaster's office and regaled, the aghast, staff with a tale of pink haired demons, dark tunnels and monsters that outran speeding freight trains.

Clearly he needed to be committed. The man's coworkers would take over while the Stationmaster tried to keep the whole mess under wraps.

Pink Devils…

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Naruto was standing behind a tree in a park at night. Soifon was next to him sitting on a bench in her gigai. She was pretending to watch some birds bathe in a nearby fountain as she discretely gave her report. He could have joined her in his own false body but his distinctive hair would have been a definite disadvantage during these times, even if he spoke perfect Japanese.

Around them was a discrete cordon composed of twenty members of the Sōshireikan's personal guard; _his_ personal guard. It was annoying being followed around constantly but the fifty special operators that Kotengu had helped him pick out were absolutely hardcore. These men and women didn't flinch at his orders; whether they were to scout out a killer hollow, execute a criminal or just fetch him tea and a warm blanket- not that he used them for such a trivial thing that often.

Aside from the sixteen guards hidden from both physical and spiritual sight there were two more overseeing the efforts of the Second Division officers who where liaising, i.e. staying the hell out of the way of, the Eleventh Division shinigami that were carelessly turning the spiritual 'life' of the area upside down in the search for their comrades' killers.

There wasn't much to be found by the Eleventh Division members, save for the stray Hollow to exterminate, unsurprising given their methods. From Soifon's report it seemed like there was nothing on her end of the investigation either. Whatever Zaraki's men thought, she and the additional Special Forces squad under her command was the group that was _truly_ investigating the situation. It seemed that the killers didn't actually reside in the Human World which was worrying, given Naruto's other reason for being in there.

They both felt it at the same time, the subtle feeling of a shinigami unsealing a zanpakuto along with an alien reiryoku that felt vaguely familiar to Naruto for some reason. The shinigami flash stepped, leaving Soifon's Gikon behind in her gigai to be harassed by a police officer over being out alone after dark.

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Sakura blinked. Her amber colored eyes glinted in the light caused by resealing Mirokumaru. She couldn't really tell what she'd done to those creatures; the red hooded, white wraiths, or why.

It was just, instinct…

It was the same instinct that allowed her to evade the lunging hand of the dark skinned man that tried to ambush her. The dark haired girl leapt backward for more space, vaulting over the short wall and into a nearby cemetery.

"Who are you!" She barked, hand on her sword.

"You're coming with us…" A smooth voice said from somewhere behind her.

Sakura took her eyes off of her initial attacker for a few brief seconds and regretted it. She only had an instant to take in the shadowy figures arrayed on the far wall of the cemetery before the brutish-looking man in green chest armor struck at her with a powerful overhead strike. Her guard was insufficient and the blow sent her tumbling between headstones in a semi-controlled roll.

-Ugh!-

She didn't recognize the spirit standing next to her as she slammed against a small stone shrine. In fact, in her confused state she almost thought that the man was the human caretaker, come out to see what all the noise was. If her attackers were surprised they didn't show it. They sensed little reiryoku from the interloper and would have overlooked him had he not brought himself to their attention. Sakura's attacker rushed in, intending to power through the man and capture his target.

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Blue eyes narrowed under a wide-brimmed straw hat as they looked over the figures that seemingly had their owner and the wounded shinigami at their mercy.

Naruto didn't look at his attacker, not even as the man's curved fist-blade drew a breath away from his form…

The weapon sailed past him as he stepped to the side and into the arc of the blow. A hand, as unyielding as a steel manacle, latched onto the offending wrist as it passed by. Naruto tugged with little seeming effort as he turned in close to the man's body, too close for the man's other weapon to do much damage.

An elbow arrested attacker's forward momentum, turning into a cruel fulcrum that dented and ground the green chest plate into the man's sternum as his body was rotated horizontally around Naruto's body. The shinigami captain exhaled gently as he swung his antagonist around like a flail. The man's face was used to smash the gravestone, above Sakura's head, and then destroyed the headstones in a seven foot radius around Naruto before he tossed the bleeding body through the wall that his opponent's allies had been watching from.

Sakura blinked…

She'd missed the whole thing…

As the shattered headstones fell to earth as a shower of pebbles one of the man's comrades finally processed what had happened.

"Jai!" The man called out.

As one of the figures leapt down to the fallen man, another unleashed a storm of throwing daggers at Naruto.

He managed to catch one before Soifon arrived in time to deflect the rest. Looking at it idly he gave a subtle hand-sign to a patch of shadow.

'_Capture them.' _

The darkness seemed to surge as one, but the targets vanished in a Hollow-like distortion before the Special Forces commandos could take them

Later, Naruto watched as Sakura limped away after being questioned. He turned to Soifon, "You noticed?"

She nodded, "Didn't identify her division, didn't recognize a Captain, didn't give her report per protocol." She listed the oddities.

"None of that is conclusive of wrongdoing though, I sort of remember her from somewhere so it's likely that she might just be one of Ukitake's… check,"

Soifon saluted, again stiffening slightly at being given a direct command, "Hai!"

To another patch of shadow Naruto signed, _'Follow that Girl'_

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**AN: Maybe one or two more chapters before things pick up from the manga.**


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